Tag: John Boehner

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House Speaker John Boehner: Gays don’t face any discrimination in the workplace

House Speaker John Boehner addressed the issue of bringing ENDA to a vote in the House today.   Clearly the man is misinformed about LGBT employment rights:

“I am opposed to discrimination of any kind in the work place and any place else.

“But I think this legislation that I’ve dealt with as chairman of the Educational Workforce Committee long before I was back into leadership, is unnecessary and would provide a basis for frivolous lawsuits.

“People are already protected in the work place. So I am, I’m opposed to continuing this.

“Listen, I understand people have different opinions on this issue and I respect those opinions but it is someone who worked in this employment law area for all of my years in the statehouse and all of my years here, I see no basis or no need for this.”

(via JMG)

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President Obama to Boehner: Put the shutdown up for a clean vote

From USA Today: President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner held separate news conferences and made sharply worded statements about the budget impasse and the looming Oct. 17 deadline when the nation reaches its debt limit.

Obama insisted that he’s “not budging” on his insistence that congressional Republicans raise the borrowing authority and pass a bill to fund the government — both without any restrictions. Boehner rejected what he considers Obama’s call for “unconditional surrender.”

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Congressional gym deemed “essential” by Boehner during government shutdown

Even the right-wing site Drudge Report is mad at this one.

We may have to cut nutritional support for poor kids, but I guess House Speaker Boehner felt Rep. Paul Ryan needed his workout, so the Congressional gym is deemed “essential” to stay open during the government shutdown….

A House aide confirmed to ThinkProgress that the House member’s gym is open. The House gym features a swimming pool, basketball courts, paddleball courts, a sauna, a steam room and flat screen TVs. While towel service is unavailable, taxpayers remain on the hook for cleaning and maintenance, which has been performed daily throughout the shutdown. There are also costs associated with the power required to heat the pools and keep the lights on.

According to the aide, the decision to keep the gym open — even while other critical government services were shelved — came directly from Speaker Boehner’s office. Meanwhile, the staff gym available to Congressional staff has been closed.

(via Think Progress)

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House Speaker Boehner refuses to negotiate after getting half his demands

Rep. Nancy Pelosi told reporters that the two items the Republicans demanded were “delaying” Obamacare for a year and an agreed upon budget at a figure of $986 billion.  Pelosi and 100 colleagues assembled today to say they would agree to the budget number – meeting the Republicans on one of their two demands – and John Boehner said “no.”

Kids, that’s called “negotiating.”  And the Republicans said “no.”  

The stories you keep hearing being filtered out by the Republican party saying Democrats won’t “negotiate” are untrue.  Even though House Democrats don’t like the budget number put forward by the House GOP, they agreed to it if Speaker Boehner would reopen the government.  According to reports, Boehner needed an “all or nothing” answer.

President Obama and congressional Republican leaders did not resolve the government shutdown during a 70-minute meeting at the White House on Wednesday.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said his chamber will negotiate with House Republicans on health care and other issues as soon as they vote to re-open the government.

Boehner “cannot take yes for an answer,” Reid told reporters after the White House meeting with Obama.

And there you have it folks.  “Negotiation” at it’s worse.

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Speaker Boehner has the votes to end the government shutdown

Via PoliticalWire.com:

“In the hours since the government shut down, House Republicans have slowly but steadily been coming forward to say they’re ready to pass a bill to fund the government with no strings attached,” Huffington Post reports.

“As of Wednesday afternoon, the number of those Republicans hit 18 — surpassing the magic 17 votes needed to pass a clean funding bill if all 200 Democrats stick together and team up with them.

“Of course, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) would have to be willing to put that bill on the floor in the first place. But if he did, the votes appear to be there for passage, at which point the bill would sail through the Senate and be signed by President Barack Obama, ending the shutdown.”

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The White House trumps tweet by Speaker Boehner

John Boehner, Speaker of the House, thought he would play along today with a current, popular hashtag on Twitter among the Tea people #ObamaCareInThreeWords as the House GOP tried for the 37th time to repeal the healthcare reform legislation:

Then, the White House decided to play along.  FTW:

To which the Speaker then tweeted:

It’s hardly “arrogance of power” for the White House to point out the obvious – that “ObamaCare” IS the law of the land.

Time to stop wasting the people’s time, Mr. Speaker. Time to get something done that actually accomplishes something.

The country is waiting.

(via JMG)

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Fiscal cliff – where we’re at so far…

As President Obama continues to make clear he’s willing to explore ideas for compromise, Speaker Boehner is drawing lines in the sand.

A majority of the nation thinks the GOP needs to try harder to find middle ground:

• 53% say the GOP should compromise more, with 41% saying the Democratic Party should give up more of the proposals it supports to develop bipartisan solutions.

• 53% of those surveyed say they view the policies of the GOP as too extreme, up 17 points from two years ago. Only 37% say they view the polices of the Democratic Party as too extreme.

The same percentage of the public, 53%, believes that when it comes to bipartisan compromise, the GOP should be the party to cave on its demands.

Check out Speaker Boehner’s 30 second press conference:

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LGBT leaders call on Speaker Boehner to stop wasting tax dollars on DOMA defense

Leaders from major LGBT rights organizations have signed a letter calling on House Speaker Boehner to stop wasting tax payer dollars defending DOMA.

The list of organizations includes: Human Rights Campaign, Outserve-SLDN, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund, National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, Center for American Progress, Immigration Equality Action Fund, CenterLink: The Community of LGBT Centers, Out & Equal Workplace Advocates, GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBT Equality, and FORGE, Inc.

Says the letter, in part:

Americans have sent a clear message that they want lawmakers to focus on strengthening our economy, creating jobs, and securing a bright future for generations to come. Spending $2 million and counting on harming LGBT people and wasting precious time and resources that should be spent on more important issues is not the way to best serve the interests of the American people. We strongly urge you to take a leadership role on this critical issue and stop pouring taxpayer dollars into a law that discriminates against Americans.
Our country is facing major challenges that we will only solve by standing united. It’s time for us to collectively focus on how we can make our great nation even stronger, and leave behind the archaic laws that exist simply to divide us. To that end, we encourage you to end your taxpayer-funded contract for outside legal services defending discrimination.

Read the full letter here