The House of Representatives may be under Republican control, but it lacks any semblance of principled leadership. In fact, fiscally conservative and libertarian-leaning members—the ideas wing of the GOP—have faced an increasingly hostile environment under Republican leadership, one in which they’re treated as obstacles rather than allies to advance the limited government policies that Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and his team purportedly believe.
Since 2011, when he assumed the gavel, Boehner has gone out of his way to antagonize principled members of his own caucus. In December 2012, for example, Republican leadership unceremoniously purged three fiscal conservatives from their committee assignments. When it was rumored that he would be removed from the House Budget Committee, Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) said that he “ha[d] not received a single call, e-mail, or text from Republican leadership confirming” the report.
Boehner attacked many of his own members as well as fiscally conservative organizations, including FreedomWorks, that opposed sequester-busting spending increases in the Ryan-Murray budget deal. Earlier this year, Boehner’s leadership, with help from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), orchestrated a surprise voice vote to pass the Medicare “doc fix” while most members were absent from the floor.
Try Newsweek for only $1.25 per week
This measure came with a $21 billion price tag, funded by debt on the backs of taxpayers, and House Republican leaders sheltered themselves from the sunlight of roll call vote, which would have allowed the American people to see how their representatives voted, preferring the darkness of a voice vote.
More recently, Boehner and his leadership team left fiscally conservative members out of negotiations on the 1,600-page government-funding bill, known to many as the “CROmnibus,” leaving them hardly any time to read the $1 trillion bill.
Over the last couple days, a handful of fiscally conservative members—including Reps. Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.), Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), and Ted Yoho (R-Fla.)—have announced that they will not support Boehner when votes for speaker are cast on Tuesday. There may be more who join them.
Not only are fiscally conservative members rejecting Boehner, 60 percent of Republican and Republican-leaning independent voters said that they want someone new as the next speaker, according to a survey released last week. Only 25 percent supported Boehner.
Boehner has had plenty of time to show that he is capable of leading the House and pursue the limited government ideals on which Republicans ran. Instead, he has proven himself to be a shaky leader with little credibility among fiscal conservatives.
Boehner has failed to lead, and he has sold out taxpayers time and time again. House Republicans shouldn’t preserve the status quo on Tuesday, they should pull the gavel directly from Boehner’s hand and elect a new speaker.
Jason Pye is a FreedomWorks author. This article first appeared on theFreedomWorks website
January 5th, 2015 @ 12:50 pm
Gowdy in, Boehner out, Carson West 2016 – the obama recovery team
January 5th, 2015 @ 1:07 pm
Gowdy does not want to run against Boehner, urge everyone to vote for Gohmert
January 5th, 2015 @ 1:43 pm
First conspiracy theory of 2015:
How the democrats can further screw America.
Republican patriotic citizens are vehemently opposed to electing Boehner as Speaker of the House on Tuesday of this week. Two viable challengers have emerged — with minuscule support AND overt disdain within the House rinocrat establishment — and with what could be a mass patriotic citizen exodus from the rinocrat party if Boehner is elected in spite of public opinion.
218 votes are required to elect the speaker and the standard presumption is that the democrats will nominate Pelosi as their candidate (who cannot win even with all minority party votes cast for her), and Boehner will be nominated by the rinocrats and must win at least 218 rinocrat votes — out of the 247 rinocrat members of the House — on the first ballot to put the issue to rest quickly.
Failure to secure 218 votes on the first roll call ballot throws the issue open to typical back room deals and shenanigans to secure 218 votes around one candidate in subsequent balloting.
HOWEVER, what if the democrats want to seal the death of the rinocrat party and make certain that buckwheat’s agenda proceeds unchallenged????
All the democrats have to do is to crossover enough democrat votes to Boehner so that he is elected on the first ballot in spite of any small group of rinocrat defections.
The American people are thoroughly screwed; and Boehner will advance buckwheat’s agenda ‘in spades’ as payback for the democrat crossover votes to secure his position of power until at least 2017.
And, republican citizens will abandon the rinocrat party.
Amen!!!
RJ
“In God We Trust”
January 5th, 2015 @ 2:59 pm
218 votes is not required.
The speaker has to be elected by a majority of the votes. No majority means another vote.
Each new House elects a Speaker by roll call vote when it first convenes. Customarily, the conference of each major party nominates a candidate whose name is placed in nomination.
Members normally vote for the candidate of their own party conference, but may vote for any individual, whether nominated or not. To be elected, a candidate must receive an absolute majority of all the votes cast for individuals. This number may be less than a majority (now 218) of the full membership of the House, because of vacancies, absentees, or Members voting “present.”
https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL30857.pdf
from Louie Gohmert
There is false information being floated that any Republican candidates in addition to the current Speaker will split the vote and give the Speaker’s gavel to Congresswoman Pelosi. This is nothing but a scare tactic to keep the current regime in power.
As long as Republicans vote for an adult American citizen for Speaker, no Democrat can win. Only if 59 Republicans voted “Present” would there be a chance for a Democrat to win.
To win the Speaker’s race, an adult American citizen has to get a clear majority of all Members of Congress on the House floor voting for an eligible person. Voting “Present” simply reduces the number of votes required to win a majority. If no one wins a majority on the first ballot, then we go to a second vote, then a third, until someone gets a majority.
https://gohmert.house.gov/news/email/show.aspx?ID=RARJ62LPUKCT65H4ZMPD4EFYI4
January 5th, 2015 @ 6:33 pm
Although I am disgusted by the racist use of “Buckwheat” and “spade” in RJ’s comment, I am pretty sure this is what is going to happen, whether on the first or second vote.