Posted on 09/27/2015 2:59:42 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Outgoing Speaker of the House John Boehner lashed out at the House’s “most conservative members” during a Sunday interview on ABC’s “Face the Nation.”
CBS host John Dickerson began the interview by asking Boehner about the threatened government shutdown: “Four days, the government runs out of money. Is there going to be a shutdown?”
Boehner responded, “no,” that he expected the Senate to pass a continuing resolution and that with the help of Democrats in the House, he expected the House to vote to keep the government open.
Moving to the issue of Boehner’s upcoming retirement, Dickerson asked Boehner about conversations he has had with members of Congress:
"A lot of your colleagues I have talked to and friends out of — who served with you used the word dysfunction and say basically that you had to resign because it’s a sign of how dysfunctional things are in the House with the Republicans. What do you say about that?"
Boehner replied, “I wouldn’t call it dysfunction. Disagreement, yes,” going on to explain that he would have had enough votes to survive the anticipated efforts by conservative Republicans to vacate his chairmanship: “Listen, winning that vote was never an issue. I was going to get the overwhelming numbers of — I would have gotten 400 votes probably. But why do I want to make my members, Republican members, walk the plank? Because they’re going to get criticized at home by some who think that we ought to be more aggressive.”
Boehner went on to lash out at Tea Party Republicans, without calling them out by name:
Listen, we have accomplished a lot over the four-and-a-half years that I was speaker, and whether it was the largest deficit reduction deal in the history of the country, saving $2.1 trillion, protecting 99 percent of the American people from an increase in our taxes, or the first major entitlement reforms in 20 years, all done over last four-and-a-half years with a Democrat president, and all voted against by my most conservative members because it wasn’t good enough.
"Really? This is the part that I really don’t understand. Our founders gave us a system of government, a majority in the House, you need 60 votes in the Senate. If the House and Senate can agree, the president gets to decide. And our founders didn’t want some parliamentary system where, if you won the majority, you got to do whatever you wanted. They wanted this long, slow process."
And so change comes slowly, and obviously too slowly for some.
Dickerson responded: “Well, are they unrealistic about what can be done by government? That’s the dysfunction.”
Boehner replied, “Absolutely they’re unrealistic,” adding:
But the Bible says, beware of false prophets. And there are people out there spreading noise about how much can get done. I mean, this whole idea that we were going to shut down the government to get rid of Obamacare in 2013, this plan never had a chance.
But over the course of the August recess in 2013, and the course of September, lot of my Republican colleagues who knew it was a fool’s errand, really, they were getting all this pressure from home to do this. And so we have got groups here in town, members of the House and Senate here in town who whip people into a frenzy believing they can accomplish things that they know, they know are never going to happen.
"It’s just — but, listen, I have had 25 great years here in Washington. I have had great staff. I have had great colleagues, and I’m very thankful to my family and to my constituents for giving me the honor to do this."
Dickerson followed up, asking “Is Ted Cruz a false prophet?” and Boehner responded: “Listen, you can pick a lot of names out. I’ll let you choose them.”
Boehner also held fast to his earlier remarks about Cruz during a fundraiser in Colorado on August when he referred to Cruz as “that jack-ass.”
DICKERSON: Is Ted Cruz a false prophet?
BOEHNER: Listen, you can pick a lot of names out. I’ll let you choose them.
DICKERSON: You don’t debate that assertion?
BOEHNER: I’ll refer you to my remark at a fund-raiser I made in August in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
Just to be certain, Dickerson followed up a couple of minutes later:
DICKERSON: Let me ask you about the — by the way, you called Ted — I believe the word you used was jackass, referring to Senator Cruz.
BOEHNER: I’m referring to that same remark.
DICKERSON: All right. All right.
You can watch this portion of the interview, below:
(VIDEO-AT-LINK)
I'm sorry ....
The hell I am! :-)
I wonder how extensive is this mindset in the GOP? We need to do some serious housecleaning in the GOP. Anyone with even a hint of that attitude needs to go.
Ok, I am dumb. what is he talking about? Seriously, if this is true, the Republican party wouldn't be in the position it is in? Is this the stuff they projected out 10+ years while they increased spending immediately? I keep hearing these talking points, but I sure haven't seen anything resembling success from these surrender monkeys.
I wasn't going to say this but remember John Boehner referred to us as garbage and others in the Party call us crazies and worse.. and I've heard one Tea Party American Congressman say Boehner calls him "poop" head (substituting for the word Boehner uses) and so ..
the last election didn't complete the job but..
Looks like something has administered the stimulant for the evacuation to
Void the bowels of Washington, D.C.!
The tea party handed this crybaby the Speakership. It is now obvious, as many of us here knew all along, that Boner viewed his job as continuing to implement the progressive agenda while fooling the people that elected him. When that finally began to fall apart, he cashed out and said goodbye.
Cute. First we raise spending by two trillion per year, then we "cut" the deficit. We're still spending TONS more cash than before. The deficit is only "Billions" instead of "Trillions."
Pssssst! Boner! I'd say the majority of the TEA Party are Conservative!
SURPRISE!
Now, don't let the door hit ya where the Good Lord split ya!
Someone might actually catch something from a door handle for a change!
So the Republican Speaker hates conservatives. WTF.
It can't hurt Ted. A man's enemies can tell you a lot about him, just by who they are.
So in the interview, he says that getting rid of ObamaCare was impossible, unrealistic. But in his campaign literature asking for contributions, he said he was going to get rid of it and restore the money to Medicare that had been taken out to pay for ObamaCare.
Boehner is a fraud.
Johnny we have been holding your seat for you in the rooms...sober up and stop the madness.
Whatever he’s against, I’m for.
His only problem is he didn’t think we would do it...
And I don’t think McConnell knows we are going to do it to him to...
Ted’s reply: “Please spell that T E D C R U Z”
A politician condemned by Boehner is a politician worthy of consideration.
That's so nice.
Does he know that we have a $17 trillion deficit and over $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities?
Why, yes. Yes he does.
What a guy.
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