Posted on 10/01/2013 9:00:20 AM PDT by Timber Rattler
With the federal government nearing shutdown, House Speaker John Boehner stood on the House floor Monday and called on his colleagues to vote for a bill banning a “so-called exemption” that lawmakers and staffers receive for their health insurance.
“Why don’t we make sure that every American is treated just like we are?” Boehner asked, seeking to prohibit members of Congress and Capitol Hill aides from getting thousands of dollars in subsidies for their health insurance as they join Obamacare-mandated insurance exchanges.
Yet behind-the-scenes, Boehner and his aides worked for months with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), and others, to save these very same, long-standing subsidies, according to documents and e-mails provided to POLITICO. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was also aware of these discussions, the documents show.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
<center.WOW!.....That was fast.
So? I think it’s bad that Boehner wanted to do this in the first place, but we always knew he was just another DC hack. However, under pressure from GOP voters, he finally bit the bullet and accepted that he and his staff might have to share in the misery the program was inflicting on everybody else.
If anything, it shows that he finally parted company with Reid and stopped playing the game. Better late than never.
The Dems are still holding out for their perks.
The Dems are losing the narrative and Reid is a nasty piece of work.
Plow Washington DC under, salt the ground, start over. We have an internet now, with live conferencing. A web based legislature leaves all the bagmen for the lobbyists uncertain just where to go to bribe the people in charge?
I think you're absolutely right. And Reid has always, always struck me as one of the creepiest people in government.
Just ANOTHER example of RAT desperation. Obamacare is now showing what we have known all along....it is and will be even more, a total DISASTER. It never was about health care...just Marxist style government dominance over the people — the Obama agenda.
A bunch of lying whores...
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Boehner aides insist there was never any intention to move legislation through the House to correct the problem.
Boehner and Reid, however, went so far as to ask to meet with President Barack Obama to lobby him personally for help — using a cover story in order to protect the secrecy of the discussions, according to these documents.
“When I was in the state legislature, we used to stick things in [bills] and no one would notice,” Boehner said during a private meeting with Reid in July to discuss this issue, the sources said.
“We can’t let it get out there that this is for [Boehner] and [Reid] to ask the President to carve us out of the requirement of Obamacare,” Sommers told David Krone, Reid’s top aide in a July 17 e-mail obtained by POLITICO.
“This is a little bit more difficult because it isn’t a routine meeting, as [Nancy] Pelosi and [Mitch] McConnell won’t be there. I am even ok if it is the President hauling us down to talk about the next steps on immigration.”
Focus on what’s happening now. You’re falling for Reid’s ploy.
Who cares what Boehner did? This is certainly not going to be news to anybody who follows politics as we do here.
What matters is what’s happening now, and that’s what Reid is trying to distract from.
I agree. Term limits, too. It would at least make it more difficult and more costly for the lobbyists.
I have been saying THAT for years!!!
come on... we all knew and know what Boehner is about... but last night he did send a bill over to Reid that took away the exemptions he sought for himself and his staff... does this make him all okay for the future? no... but right now, we have to encourage our reps to stand strong against Reid and the dems...
Remember those ‘poor aides’ that said they needed an exemption from Obamacare because they couldn’t afford it? And remember the ‘brain drain’ argument?
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David Krone is chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. He previously served as senior vice president of Comcast Corp. Earlier, he was executive vice president of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA), the principal trade association of the cable industry in the United States
In other words....a lobbyist!
Turns our Reid was engaging in a massive piece of projection when he was throwing around the term “anarchist”
This is a major play against Boehners speakership. Effectively it means that the House Republicans ca no longer work ... at all ... with Senate Dems. The bridge just got dynamited.
It also means that the Dems have no interest in resolving any of this, or ending the shutdown. They obviously believe that the shutdown benefits them. Considering that on their very first day of operation the exchanges are crashing and burning, that’s no surprise.
I’m not a fan of Boehner by any means, and these emails definitely show just how twofaced he is. But the story us Reids willingness to use them not as a threat or a bargaining chip, but as a barrel of napalm to throw on the current fire.
This is what I think the Republican House ought to do. Pass a CR with wording that no one can be exempt, and that exemptions could not be granted under any circumstance. Then we would get to watch the Democrats in the Senate go through contortions as they reject that CR. Accomplishes numerous things, it shuts up the stupid moderates, like Peter King, and it exposes who really wants to shut the government down. The extra added benefit is the unions would be against Obama care and shouting at the top of their lungs against it. It would also put the press on the spot. Absolutely the best maneuver Republicans could employ.
True Colours.. a Boehner expose.
Truer colors - Harry Reid
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