Skip to content

Hosted By President Clinton, President and Mrs. Bush and Speaker John Boehner …

Friday, May 18, 2012

WASHINGTON, May 16, 2012 — $8 Million Still Needed in Funding To Complete National Memorial in Shanksville, PA

WASHINGTON, May 16, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ – Last night, nearly 400 guests joined the National Park Foundation, the official charity of America’s national parks, and co-hosts President Bill Clinton, President and Mrs. George W. Bush and Speaker of the House John Boehner at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. for “An Evening of Remembrance” honoring the 40 passengers and crew of United Flight 93 who fought back against their hijackers on September 11, 2001, ultimately crashing their plane and preventing a second aerial attack on Washington D.C. Today, the National Park Foundation’s Flight 93 National Memorial Campaign announced the event brought in approximately two million dollars leaving eight million dollars in funding to be raised to complete the Shanksville, Pennsylvania memorial.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20090630/DC40408LOGO)

NBC’s “Meet the Press” moderator, David Gregory, presided as the master of ceremonies and country-music artist Vince Gill performed moving musical tributes, including his emotional hit “Go Rest High On That Mountain” which played while images of the 40 passengers and crew scrolled on the 40 foot screen on behind the stage.

“All future fundraising can build off of the momentum of this moment,” said Neil Mulholland, President and CEO of the National Park Foundation. “Last night’s event has brought us closer to the completion of this Memorial, ensuring that those lost on September 11, 2001, including the 40 heroes of Flight 93, are never forgotten.”

Co-hosts President Bill Clinton, President and Mrs. George W. Bush and Speaker of the House John Boehner were joined by many family members of the passengers and crew of Flight 93, resident and local supporters from the Shanksville community and dignitaries including: Governor Ed Rendell, Governor Tom Ridge, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, Secretary of Veteran Affairs Eric Shinseki, Governor Dirk Kempthorne, General Tommy Franks, Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA), Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO), Congressman Bill Shuster (R-PA), Congressman Fred Upton (R-MI), Congressman Mark Critz (D-PA), Ambassador Ichiro Fujisaki (Embassy of Japan), Deputy Chief of Mission Jens Hanefeld (Embassy of Germany), and Director of the National Park Service Jon Jarvis.

For pictures and video from the event, please visit www.nationalparks.org and for more information on the Flight 93 National Memorial and how to support the campaign, please go to www.honorflight93.org.

ABOUT THE FLIGHT 93 NATIONAL MEMORIAL On September 24, 2002, President Bush signed into law the Flight 93 National Memorial Act. The Act created a new national park unit to commemorate the passengers and crew of Flight 93 who, on September 11, 2001, courageously gave their lives thereby thwarting a planned attack on our nation’s capital. The memorial is near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where Flight 93 crashed with the loss of its 40 passengers and crew. For more information about the Flight 93 National Memorial, please visit www.nps.gov/flni.  For information on how to make a donation and help build the memorial, go to www.honorflight93.org. 

ABOUT THE NATIONAL PARK FOUNDATION You are the owner of 84 million acres of the world’s most treasured memorials, landscapes, ecosystems, and historic sites — all protected in America’s nearly 400 national parks.  Chartered by Congress, the National Park Foundation is the official charity of America’s national parks.  We work hand in hand with the National Park Service to connect you and all Americans to the parks, and to make sure that they are preserved for the generations who will follow.  Join us in supporting your national parks — this is your land. www.nationalparks.org.

Join us – This is Your Land. www.nationalparks.org FACEBOOK http://www.facebook.com/nationalpark TWITTER http://twitter.com/goparks

Contact: Marjorie Hall, mhall@nationalparks.org, 202-354-6480

SOURCE National Park Foundation

Article source: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/05/16/4494809/hosted-by-president-clinton-president.html

Filed in Speaker Boner | Tagged | Comments (0)

Boehner calls debt limit ‘leverage to make the system work’

Friday, May 18, 2012

Beleaguered GSA praised for telework program

Agency honored, along with USDA and Homeland Security, for innovations in promoting the work arrangement.

Article source: http://www.govexec.com/oversight/2012/05/boehner-calls-debt-limit-leverage-make-system-work/55792/?oref=dropdown

Filed in Speaker Boner | Tagged | Comments (0)

Right infighting over health care

Friday, May 18, 2012

Thirty minutes.

That’s the roughly time it took for conservatives to jump all over Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and his leadership team after the GOP’s game plan for dealing with President Barack Obama’s health care law leaked to the media.

Continue Reading

Their gripe? Republicans would try to replicate popular parts of Obama’s health care law if the Supreme Court overturns the law this summer.

Rather than sending out news releases or rushing to cable TV for a rant, conservatives blasted House Republican leadership on a private Google email group called The Repeal Coalition. The group is chock- full of think tank types, some Republican leadership staffers, health care policy staffers and conservative activists, according to sources in the group.

The behind-the-scenes fight among Republicans richly illustrates why House GOP leadership is so cautious, sensitive and calculating when it comes to dealing with the conservative right. POLITICO obtained the email chain, the contents of which show that health care reform remains just as emotional an issue as ever.

Wesley Denton, an aide to Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), questioned whether the “GOP now against full repeal?”

“Should we change the name of this [listserv] to ‘partialrepealcoalition’ or ‘someofobamacareisprettygood’?” Denton wrote to the group.

Brian Worth, a GOP leadership staffer responsible for coordinating with outside groups, shot back that “the House has already passed a full repeal bill.”

“Has the Senate passed that bill yet?” Worth asked Denton, in the email chain.

Russ Vought, a former House Republican staffer who is now at Heritage Action for America, bluntly said, “that has absolutely nothing to do with it.” The “House GOP is going to cave after winning an election on full repeal … and before winning the next election to finish the job.”

“Unreal,” he said.

The common Washington narrative holds that Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) have trouble wrangling the members in the House Republican Conference. That might be true — at times.

But groups on the outside are also problematic. When a certain issue gets hot, email groups like The Repeal Coalition pop up, causing spirited debate among staffers and activists. It also gins up opposition to — or support for — leadership, creating a sense of group-think that’s often hard for leadership to contain to control.

For example, during the debt ceiling debate last summer, a group of conservatives gathered on a Cut, Cap and Balance email chain — taking its name from a plan pushed by conservatives like Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz and Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio.

It’s another turn of the screw for a Washington that is influenced by deep-pocketed, high-profile legislative-action groups. From Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform to Heritage Action to Club for Growth, these groups are frequent judges of Republican Washington and aren’t afraid to speak out against fellow conservatives.

Article source: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0512/76471.html

Filed in Speaker Boner | Tagged | Comments (0)

Boehner, lawmakers at odds over Fast & Furious

Friday, May 18, 2012

WASHINGTON – House GOP conservatives are pushing for immediate passage of a contempt-of-Congress resolution over Operation Fast Furious, a position that puts them at odds with House Speaker John Boehner.

“Let’s get it done,” said Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Corpus Christi, a member of the House committee investigating Fast Furious, which started in Phoenix in 2009 when ATF agents used watch-and-wait tactics while gun purchasers shipped over 2,000 weapons to Mexican drug cartels.

Two of those weapons were recovered in December 2010 in southern Arizona at the murder site of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which has spent the past year investigating the Justice Department’s handling of Fast Furious, is poised to vote on a contempt-of-Congress resolution against Attorney General Eric Holder over what Republicans allege is failure to produce subpoenaed documents.

The committee’s document quest has become a cause celebre for House Republicans, particularly those from border states.

“It is clear that DOJ is withholding information from Congress and stonewalling this investigation,” said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin. “The American people expect their public officials to explain their actions and be held accountable.”

The Justice Department has strenuously denied stonewalling charges, saying it has cooperated with lawmakers to the fullest extent possible.

In a letter earlier this week, Deputy Attorney General James Cole said the department had provided 7,600 pages of documents but that other documents demanded under the committee subpoena involve “sensitive law enforcement activities,” including on-going investigations and prosecutions.

Cole said a contempt resolution would be “unprecedented” and “ill-advised,” adding: “We believe that the core questions posed by the committee about Operation Fast Furious have been answered.”

Farenthold and other committee members such as Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., brush aside Justice Department objections and argue that Holder, Cole and other department officials have had long enough to respond and a contempt citation is needed now.

“The time to do this was a month ago,” Farenthold said. “The longer we fool around with this, the greater the chance something else could go wrong.”

But that position is in conflict with Boehner’s more measured approach of “all options are on the table,” which is the way he described his view on how best to get sought-after documents from the Justice Department.

At a White House meeting with congressional leaders Wednesday, Boehner urged President Obama to press Justice officials on providing the requested information, a Boehner aide said.

But Farenthold and Gowdy say their patience has run out.

“It has to be explained to the leadership that this isn’t about politics,” said Josh Dix, spokesman for Gowdy.

Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, issued a report late last month detailing examples of how the Justice Department “has become more partisan than ever.”

He cited Fast Furious among them. Others included the department’s refusal to enforce the Defense of Marriage Act, which permits states not to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states, and using procedural maneuvers to win Senate confirmation of appointees.

 

dan@hearstdc.com

Article source: http://www.chron.com/news/nation-world/article/Boehner-lawmakers-at-odds-over-Fast-amp-Furious-3567341.php

Filed in Speaker Boner | Tagged | Comments (0)

Boehner punts on condemning super PAC’s Wright proposal

Thursday, May 17, 2012

 

Updated 1:48 p.m. – House Speaker John Boehner refused to comment on whether or not super PACs should use the Reverend Jeremiah Wright in political advertisements, saying instead that the presidential race would be about the economy.

This morning the New York Times broke the story that a conservative super PAC was contemplating — and even had drawn up storyboards — of an ad that would link President Obama to his controversial former pastor. Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney decried the possible ad saying to Townhall:

“I repudiate the effort by that PAC to promote an ad strategy of the nature they’ve described. I would like to see this campaign focus on the economy, on getting people back to work, on seeing rising incomes and growing prosperity — particularly for those in the middle class of America.”

Boehner did not go as far as Romney, refusing to directly renounce the prospective ads.

“Listen, this election is going to be about the economy,” he said. “I don’t know what the other people do or why they do it, all I know if the American people vote with their wallets.”

When reminded by NBC News that four years ago, Arizona Sen. John McCain, who was then the GOP nominee, disallowed his campaign from using Wright in any ads, Boehner responded, “The campaign is going to be about economics, it’s going to be about jobs, as it should be.”

Since the outset of the Obama administration, Boehner has shown a reluctance to wade into the culture wars that have grown from some conservatives’ intense dislike of the president, preferring instead to focus squarely on the economy. Boehner never outright condemns factions of his party that question the president’s patriotism or birthplace nor does he give them relevance, instead he repeats his mantra: “Where are the jobs?”

Boehner spokesman Michael Steel added: “As Boehner said, this election should be about the economy – not Rev. Wright.”

Article source: http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/17/11746295-boehner-punts-on-condemning-super-pacs-wright-proposal?chromedomain=nbcpolitics

Filed in Speaker Boner | Tagged | Comments (0)

What do Republicans mean when they say ‘spending-driven debt’?

Thursday, May 17, 2012

I got a weird e-mail from John Boehner’s office yesterday. “No Reason to Wait,” it said. “Let’s Address Spending-Driven Debt Now.”

So what’s “spending-driven debt”? I’m not exactly sure. But there are a whole lot of references to it in my inbox. Later that same day, I got another e-mail from Boehner’s office about “the spending-driven debt that threatens job creation and economic growth.” And on May 4, I got an e-mail from Boehner’s office saying “those looking for work can’t find it because ObamaCare, our spending-driven debt, and the threat of tax hikes are making it harder for small businesses to hire.”

I tend to think I’m pretty up on the budget lingo. But “spending-driven debt” is a new term for me. In fact, it seems to be a new term period. The first mention I can find on Lexis-Nexis is from Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) who, on Feb. 14, 2011, told CNN’s Gloria Borger that “we have a spending-driven debt crisis that is harming job growth in America and frankly, threatens the American dream for our children.”

(It’s a common tic of political speech, but don’t you love the “frankly” in that sentence? As if Hensarling is telling Borger a secret? “Frankly, Gloria, my political opponents are doing a bad job governing the country. Whew! Feels better to finally get that off my chest. Honestly really is the best policy.”)

I can’t find an actual definition of “spending-driven debt.” But I assume it means debt driven entirely by new spending. And we can actually calculate what percentage of our debt is driven by new spending.

The Pew Fiscal Analysis Initiative recently assessed the various drivers of our national debt. They broke the drivers of debt into three categories. There’s new spending. There’s new tax cuts. And there’s economic and technical changes — so, what happens when the economy collapses, or the population ages.

New spending accounted for 41 percent of our debt since 2001. So if “spending-driven debt” is all that Republicans want to address, they’re leaving most of our debt problems alone.

If you break it down by policies, the term becomes even more absurd. The single largest debt-producing policy passed since 2001 was the Bush tax cuts. It’s followed by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In recent years, the driver has been the economic aftereffects of the financial crisis and, to a lesser extent, the policies, like TARP and the stimulus, that were passed to ameliorate them.

So if you read the chart carefully, you would say we should reverse the tax cuts, stop launching so many deficit-financed wars, and make sure we regulate the financial sector so it doesn’t blow up again. But that’s not exactly the Republican agenda right now.

Article source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/what-do-republicans-mean-when-they-say-spending-driven-debt/2012/05/17/gIQAiGHSWU_blog.html

Filed in Speaker Boner | Tagged | Comments (0)

Boehner: No Budget Brinksmanship From Me

Thursday, May 17, 2012


By Naftali Bendavid


Associated Press
House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, right, is interviewed by Bill Hemmer, co-anchor of Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom,” in New York in April.

House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) professed bafflement Thursday about the reaction to his comment Wednesday that any increase in the debt limit at the end of the year must be accompanied by spending cuts and other savings of greater value.

Democrats said this threatened a repeat of last summer’s standoff over the debt limit, when the government came within days of defaulting on its obligations. But Mr. Boehner said he was threatening no such thing.

“The only ones talking about drama or brinksmanship are my Democrat colleagues across the aisle,” Mr. Boehner said. All he meant, Mr. Boehner said, was that the two sides should start discussing the debt limit and other problems that will arise at year’s end.

“People are looking at me like I’m a guy carrying a sword around town and threatening to bludgeon someone,” Mr. Boehner said. “All I’m saying is, we should talk about it.”

On Tuesday, at an event sponsored by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a group that pushes for deficit reduction, Mr. Boehner laid out his position and described it as “a line in the sand” because Washington has “kicked the can down the road” on cutting spending and deficits.

Rep. Chris van Hollen (D., Md.), the top Democrat on the House budget committee, said it’s wrong to set conditions for raising the debt limit. “It is absolutely reckless and irresponsible to threaten that the United States will not pay its bills,” Mr. Van Hollen told MSNBC Thursday.

Congress will confront a series of challenges at the end of the year. The government is expected to bump up against its debt ceiling. The Bush-era tax cuts are scheduled to expire. The first installment of $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts are due to kick in. And other temporary provisions, like a payroll tax cut, are set to expire at the end of the year.

Such difficult issues are hard to tackle in an election year, so lawmakers are expecting to address them in a special session after the Election Day, which falls on Nov. 6, but before the end of the year. Mr. Boehner suggested it was too much to tackle in such a short period.

“To think we’re going to do all of it between election day and Christmas is a big stretch, in my mind,” he said.

The speaker was asked at a press conference whether he and President Barack Obama could renew their efforts at a grand bargain to cut the deficit.

“I live for hope,” Mr. Boehner said.

Article source: http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2012/05/17/boehner-no-budget-brinksmanship-from-me/

Filed in Speaker Boner | Tagged | Comments (0)

Boehner: Spending cuts must exceed debt limit hike

Thursday, May 17, 2012

WASHINGTON — House Speaker John Boehner said Tuesday that when Congress raises the nation’s borrowing cap he will again insist on spending cuts and budget reforms to offset the increase.

In remarks Tuesday afternoon at a budget conference in Washington, the Ohio Republican said he welcomes another wrenching debate on increasing the so-called debt limit because it forces a Congress and White House plagued by gridlock to make difficult decisions.

Boehner also said that the GOP-controlled House will vote to extend Bush-era tax cuts due to expire at the end of the year and that the House will act next year on “broad-based tax reform that lowers rates for individuals and businesses while closing deductions, credits and special carveouts.”

According to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, the government will hit its borrowing cap later this year, but Treasury can use accounting maneuvers to buy time for the newly elected Congress to deal with the issue early next year.

About a year ago, Boehner made a similar promise demanding spending cuts spread over a decade exceed the amount of increase in the debt limit, which at the time was discounted by some in official Washington.

“When the time comes, I will again insist on my simple principle of cuts and reforms greater than the debt limit increase,” Boehner said at a “budget summit” sponsored by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a nonpartisan group that advocates tackling the nation’s debt problem. “This is the only avenue I see right now to force the elected leadership of this country to solve our structural fiscal imbalance.”

Asked whether President Barack Obama agreed that any increase in the debt ceiling should be offset by spending cuts, White House spokesman Jay Carney said that scenario would present an ugly repeat of last year when Republicans held the U.S. government credit “hostage,” as Carney put it.

“It can’t possibly be the case that the right prescription for what we need to do right now is to engage in the kind of political brinksmanship that, unfortunately, congressional Republicans engaged in last year,” Carney said. “So we’re not going to do that.”

Yet it was unclear how the White House could prevent it if the Republican-led Congress again insists on commensurate cuts. Carney said Obama would again demand balancing spending cuts with an increase in tax revenue, which Republicans have rejected.

Boehner said it may take one or more stopgap debt increases to buy time for a larger bargain.

Last year, Congress and Obama – with Boehner playing a lead role – agreed on a 10-year, $2 trillion-plus package of spending cuts the coming decade. The measure paired caps on domestic agency operating budgets with the promise of $1.2 trillion in further deficit cuts though a so-called deficit supercommittee.

But the supercommittee’s failure to reach a deal has forced a scheduled painful round of automatic spending cuts at the Pentagon and other Cabinet agencies next year, along with a 2 percent cut to Medicare providers. Lawmakers are already trying to unwind those cuts, which take effect in January.

Boehner seemed to warn that he won’t permit such a scheme this time around.

“Just so we’re clear, I’m talking about real cuts and reforms – not these tricks and gimmicks that have given Washington a pass on grappling with its spending,” he said.

Geithner warned against a replay of last summer’s debt crisis, which led to a downgrade in the U.S. government’s credit rating.

“This commitment to meet the obligations of the nation, this commitment to protect the creditworthiness of the country is a fundamental commitment you can never call into question or violate because it’s the foundation for any market economy,” Geithner said Tuesday morning at the same event. “This allows us to govern, to fight wars, to deal with crises, recessions, to adjust to a changing world.”

Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20120515/us-boehner-debt-limit/

Filed in Speaker Boner | Tagged | Comments (0)

Boehner vows another showdown over debt and taxes

Thursday, May 17, 2012

WASHINGTON —
House Speaker John Boehner set the stage Tuesday for another tense, partisan showdown over tax and spending policy later this year, as he vowed to insist on big spending cuts before he will agree to a new debt ceiling – much like last summer’s debt showdown debacle – and he also promised a vote before November’s elections on whether to prevent Bush-era tax cuts from expiring at year’s end, as scheduled.

Boehner’s address to a Washington budget forum had chilling echoes of the 2011 clash over increasing the debt ceiling, a weeks-long standoff between the Obama White House and Republicans in the House of Representatives that roiled financial markets, led to a downgrade of federal credit and nearly forced much of the government to close.

Another vote on raising the debt ceiling is expected later this year, probably after the Nov. 6 elections. Boehner on Tuesday pledged to make it an “action-forcing event in a town that has become infamous for inaction. … When the time comes, I will again insist on my simple principle of cuts and reforms greater than the debt limit increase. This is the only avenue I see right now to force the elected leadership of this country to solve our structural fiscal imbalance.”

The Ohio Republican also pledged to fight to extend Bush-era tax cuts, now set to expire at the end of this year, and called on President Barack Obama to join him. “If there’s one action-forcing event that trumps all the rest – even the debt limit – it’s presidential leadership,” Boehner said.

Democrats scoffed.

“Republicans are once again choosing millionaires over the middle class and Speaker Boehner is threatening to take our nation into another manufactured crisis that will harm America’s families,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. Added Senate Democratic Policy Committee Chairman Charles Schumer of New York, “The last thing the country needs is a rerun of last summer’s debacle that nearly brought down our economy.”

The White House was somewhat more measured.

“Everyone except for elected members of Congress, the Republican Party, agrees with that general proposition that we need to take a balanced approach to our deficit and debt challenges,” said spokesman Jay Carney. “A balanced approach” to deficit reduction is Democratic shorthand for a package including tax increases as well as spending cuts.

Boehner flatly rejected higher taxes.

“Any sudden tax hike would hurt our economy, so this fall – before the election – the House of Representatives will vote to stop the largest tax increase in American history,” Boehner said, referring to the expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts. Since the House has a 242-190 GOP majority, the cuts are sure to pass. But they’re likely to go nowhere in the Senate, where Democrats control 53 of the 100 seats.

Obama and House Republicans last summer engaged in weeks of negotiations over cutting spending and increasing revenues. They ultimately agreed to raise the debt ceiling in stages and to impose automatic spending cuts, set to begin taking effect in January. The first round will total about $110 billion next year, half from defense and half from domestic programs.

More crucial to the fate of the debt are the Bush-era tax cuts, which have lowered income tax rates for the past 12 years and which will expire at the end of 2012. So will a host of other tax breaks, including the 2 percent cut in the Social Security payroll tax. Extending the Bush-era tax cuts would cost roughly $3.8 trillion over 10 years, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Article source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/15/2801030/boehner-vows-another-showdown.html

Filed in Speaker Boner | Tagged | Comments (0)

Boehner talks tough on debt ceiling again

Thursday, May 17, 2012

By 

Jack Torry

The Columbus Dispatch

Wednesday May 16, 2012 5:59 AM

WASHINGTON — Government shutdowns are bad, but increasing the federal debt ceiling this fall
without deep cuts in federal spending would be even worse, House Speaker John Boehner declared
yesterday in a stark challenge to President Barack Obama.

In a speech before an organization that champions balanced budgets, the West Chester Republican
adopted a tough line, saying that the looming debate over the federal debt ceiling would be “an
action-forcing event in a town that has become famous for inaction.”

“Yes, allowing America to default would be irresponsible,” Boehner said. “But it would be more
irresponsible to raise the debt ceiling without taking dramatic steps to reduce spending and reform
the budget process.

“When the time comes, I will again insist on my simple principle of cuts and reforms greater
than the debt-limit increase,” Boehner said. “This is the only avenue I see right now to force the
elected leadership of this country to solve our structural fiscal imbalance.”

Democrats pounced on Boehner’s speech.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., said, “it is pretty galling for Speaker Boehner to be laying
down demands for another debt-ceiling agreement when he won’t even abide by the last one. The last
thing the country needs is a rerun of last summer’s debacle that nearly brought down our
economy.”

Obama likely will ask Congress to increase the government’s debt ceiling after the November
election. Without an increase in the government’s ability to borrow, the government faces the
possibility of a default.

In addition, the nation faces the prospect of a broad array of tax cuts expiring at the end of
the year, including investment, income and payroll-tax cuts that affect all Americans. And shortly
after the first of the year, the first round of an eventual $1.2 trillion in automatic spending
cuts go into effect.

During his speech before a fiscal summit sponsored by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, Boehner
also castigated Obama, charging that he “lost his courage” in August in the intense debt-ceiling
negotiations that brought the federal government to the brink of default.

He complained that Obama was not willing last year to buck Senate Democratic demands for higher
taxes on wealthier Americans. Those taxes were opposed by House and Senate Republicans.

While Boehner ruled out increasing taxes, which he said “would hurt our economy,” he did nudge
the door open for increased federal tax revenue through an overhaul of the tax code. He said such
an overhaul would include lower “rates for individuals and businesses while closing deductions,
credits and special carve-outs.”

“And if we do that right, we will see increased revenue from more economic growth,” Boehner
said.

Boehner said the House will vote this year to extend all the tax cuts scheduled to expire at the
end of the year. He said as part of that bill, he would attach a measure that would “establish an
expedited process” for Congress to draft a broader tax-overhaul package.

“We can’t wait,” Boehner said. “Employers large and small are already bracing for the coming tax
hikes and regulations, which freeze them in place. The markets aren’t going to wait forever —
eventually, they’re going to start reacting.”

But Boehner’s stance, while pleasing House conservatives, could provoke a shutdown. Obama and
Senate Democrats have made clear they want to raise taxes on individual taxpayers with an adjusted
gross income of at least $200,000 annually and families earning more than $250,000.

jtorry@dispatch.com

Article source: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/05/16/boehner-talks-tough-on-debt-ceiling-again.html

Filed in Speaker Boner | Tagged | Comments (0)