My biggest criticism of my representative John Boehner over the years is that he has been too soft on President Obama. The current president is obviously engaged in a power grab and has been pushing conservatives around for years without a proper response. Speaking from personal experience the best way to deal with a bully is to push back when they push you, and Obama is simply a bully when it comes to radicalism and advocating his points of view. Largely Boehner, obviously respectful of the presidency in a way befitting royalty, has let the president push him and his congress without fear of retaliation to the point of embarrassment.
Well, it appears that Boehner is finally pushing back a little, now that the Senate has gone to the Republicans, and it’s good to see. It’s about time. It’s also good to see Boehner go on Fox News to talk about the ways that he plans to push back against the encroaching president. Obama has done plenty of speaking to the media from MSNBC to MTV and one of the primary reasons that Boehner’s Congress has such low approval ratings is that the President has out-talked him as the Speaker of the House to the media. Boehner could take advantage of the many conservative talk shows on the radio and television, but really hasn’t much—which is why he has lost over the years to the slick talk of the Democratic socialists and their wealth-redistribution schemes. But that appears to be changing as reported by the below Fox News article speaking about the recent Boehner interview.
WASHINGTON – House Speaker John Boehner confirmed to Fox News on Wednesday that Republicans plan to sue President Obama over his use of executive action on immigration.
“The president’s overreach when he took executive action to deal with the immigration problems in our country, frankly, in my view, is a violation of our Constitution,” Boehner said on “Special Report with Bret Baier.”
“We believe that the filing of a lawsuit to try to stop the president from – from violating our Constitution is an important step for our institution,” he added. “This isn’t about immigration. This is the president violating the Constitution, violating his oath of office, and frankly, not upholding the rule of law.”
The move to sue has been seen as an effort to appease conservatives who are upset they may be forced to accept a Department of Homeland Security funding bill that does not include provisions rolling back the president’s executive actions.
Earlier Wednesday, the White House shrugged off Boehner’s threats of a lawsuit.
“House Republicans seem to be relying more and more on the courts these days to challenge the president’s authority,” White House spokesman Eric Shultz said. “We believe that we acted within the full bounds of authority enshrined to the executive branch, and we’ll be defending that.”
Last year, the House moved to sue Obama over his administration’s delayed implementation of the employer mandate in ObamaCare.
In the wide-ranging interview with Baier, Boehner said he wasn’t surprised by the pushback he’s received from inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint meeting of Congress.
“The Israeli prime minister can also talk with some expertise about the growing threat of radical Islam,” Boehner said. “We’ve got a serious problem in the world and the president just wants to act like it’s going to just disappear. And so as a co-equal branch of our government, I don’t have any problem at all in doing what I did to invite the prime minister to come to Congress and address those concerns.”
Boehner also discussed hiccups he’s had with the Republican caucus.
“Listen, I was the Tea Party before there was a Tea Party,” he said. “I understand their concerns. I understand their frustrations. But we have a Constitution that we abide by and we’re going to live by.”
When asked why the House would once again hold a vote to repeal ObamaCare, as is planned next week, Boehner said it came down to getting new Republican voices heard.
“We have 47 new members of Congress on the Republican side who have never had the chance to cast their vote to repeal ObamaCare,” Boehner said. “ObamaCare is hurting our economy. It’s hurting the job prospects for millions of Americans. And it’s hurting our whole health care delivery system while at the same time driving up costs for the average American.”
Boehner also said Republicans would offer an alternative to ObamaCare by the end of the congressional session.
“There are three committee chairmen that have the jurisdiction over the health care policy in our country and those three chairmen are working together to craft what we believe would be a better approach with regard to health care for the American people than ObamaCare.”
Of the most important note in that interview was Boehner’s claim to be a co-equal branch of government, which a lot of people apparently don’t know. Obama behaving like a king of some kind has routinely stepped around Congress to implement his plans, so when it came to inviting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Boehner finally stepped around the president and acted on his own—like he should have.
No politician would dare say it in the light of day for being labeled a conspiracy advocate but Obama’s behavior has been dangerous in regard to Israel. He obviously is sympathetic to the Palestinian point of view and has created an adversarial relationship with Netanyahu consistent to the views of radical Islamic elements. Even when ISIS terrorists have done their worst against the peace and stability of the entire world, Obama has been careful not to call them Islamic terrorists so not to insult Muslims—which is strange behavior. When Christian radicals go too far, most sane Christians will call out the bad behavior as such—as in the case of the Westboro Baptist Church types people. There are plenty of Christians who thought Reverend Fred Phelps was over the top and vile—and they were not afraid to say so. They certainly didn’t make excuses for him the way Obama does with radical Muslims. So what is really going on? Likely, the answer is not a good one.
I think Boehner thought Obama was a decent human being who played golf with him, and considered that the names people like me were calling the president were uncalled for, and the stuff of conspiracy. But any rational person would have to look at the evidence and conclude that there is something really wrong with Obama and his view of the American presidency—and that he has been bullying Republicans around for years—especially John Boehner.
So it’s good to see Boehner starting to stick up for himself, and Republicans in general. At a bare minimum, Obama is a scum bag, liar and history will confirm it. So there is nothing wrong with pushing back against such a person when it is obvious what his intentions are from the White House perspective. There is certainly nothing wrong with bringing Benjamin Netanyahu to Congress to speak without asking Obama if it’s alright. Obama doesn’t ask for permission to do things and routinely bypasses Congress—so the precedent has been set—and Boehner as an equal member of the federal power structure has a right and obligation to do the same. And he finally has—and it’s about time!
As far as Boehner being “Tea Party before there was a Tea Party,” well, there’s room for converts, and people have to live with their decisions in life. If he sees correctly where the wind is blowing from and to, and decides that he wants his sails to be carried by those currents into fate—well, that’s fine. He can believe what he wants. What really matters is what he does and says day to day—and if he suddenly discovers in himself a spine against Obama—then he can call himself a Tea Party guy from now until eternity. Because in his position—Boehner is best prepared to keep the power grabs of the president in check. So we’ll see how long the Tea Party in him lasts. Hopefully, it won’t fade away in the coming months like it usually does. I remain hopeful that Boehner has finally discovered within himself the Marty McFly from Back to the Future. Hopefully he’s finally going to say to Biff—“Hey you, take your damn hands off her.” We’ll see if this time he can actually make a fist.
Rich Hoffman
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