It is time for John Boehner to go.
Six years ago, it was a miserable time to be a Republican in Congress. The Republicans had been swept out of power in 2007. Nancy Pelosi ran the House of Representatives with an iron fist.
Fortunately for the Republican Party, the Tea Party movement had been born. In 2010, that movement would sweep the Republicans back into power and Ohio Congressman John Boehner into the House Speaker’s chair. Four-and-a-half years later, it is indisputable that he has been a complete failure as Speaker of the House of Representatives.
It is time for him to go.
The role of the Speaker is to lead the House of Representatives and his party. When Mr. Boehner took over as Speaker, many conservatives had some unrealistic expectations of him. Some expected an immediate repeal of Obamacare. Indeed, the Republicans had run on a platform of repealing Obamacare. The Republicans under Mr. Boehner promised fiscal conservatism and responsibility. They promised to advance a conservative agenda.
The problem is not that Mr. Boehner failed. The problem is he never really tried.
Mr. Boehner would not stand up to Barack Obama. When Mr. Obama threatened to shut down the government, Mr. Boehner caved. When Mr. Obama wanted to raise the debt ceiling, Mr. Boehner surrendered.
In fact, the only time Mr. Boehner ever stood up to Mr. Obama was in 2013, when the government shutdown. The 2013 shutdown was an attempt by conservatives to get John Boehner to keep his promise and defund Obamacare. Mr. Boehner was dragged into the shutdown against his will and surrendered as quickly as he could, giving the Obama Regime a complete victory.
Congressman Mark Meadows has introduced a bill to vacate the Speaker’s chair. This bill, if put to a vote and passed, would remove John Boehner as Speaker of the House of Representatives. Mr. Boehner’s allies in the House pushed for a quick vote on this matter so that Mr. Meadows would be embarrassed.
A funny thing happened on the way to embarrassment. When Mr. Boehner’s team “whipped” the vote — or in non-Washington English, counted the probably votes — Team Boehner realized there were not enough votes for Mr. Boehner to survive as Speaker. No one should be surprised by that since Mr. Boehner has been far more willing to fight members of his own party than he has been to fight the Democrats and/or Barack Obama.
Mr. Boehner’s supporters have argued that there is not much he could do as Speaker since the Democrats still control the White House and until this past January, controlled the Senate. They are partially right about that.
There are some things that simply were not going to happen, like a complete repeal of Obamacare. But that doesn’t mean Mr. Boehner could not have tried to cut spending and use the leverage he had.
He never tried and that is the problem. Among conservatives, Mr. Boehner became a running joke. His symbol became his freshly laundered white flag of surrender.
According to a recent Pew Poll, 55 percent of Republicans disapprove of the GOP congressional leadership. Only 37 percent believe the GOP leaders keep their promises. A party cannot survive when even its own members do not believe in the leadership.
The House of Representatives is on its August recess. Members will be back in September and the first order of business needs to be a new Speaker.
It is time for John Boehner to go.
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