I won't be here in the US when the future comes due, so why should I care?
Let's party like it's A.D. 475!
Posted on 12/23/2011 11:59:40 AM PST by rabscuttle385
Freshman Tea Party Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) is incensed that Republicans caved in the payroll-tax debate, and is putting the blame squarely on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
“I don’t think there’s a revolt with respect to Speaker Boehner,” Gowdy said Thursday night on Fox’s "Your World With Neil Cavuto." "I think the license tag of the truck that just ran over us has Kentucky license tags. For the life of me, I cannot understand when the Senate is going to find something they care enough about to stand on policy and principle.”
Last week, the Senate overwhelmingly passed a bill to extend the payroll tax cut for two months to give Republicans and Democrats additional time to negotiate how to pay for a full-year extension, which both sides say they want. McConnell seemed to have an understanding with House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) that the bill would pass the House.
However, House Republicans, led by some freshman representatives who were voted into office on the strength of the Tea Party movement, revolted against the Senate-passed bill, saying the negotiation over a full-year tax cut should happen now.
But the conservative establishment, led by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the Wall Street Journal editorial board and former Bush adviser Karl Rove, turned strongly against House Republicans and said they were botching the politics by picking the wrong fight.
On Thursday, McConnell dropped a lifeline to Boehner, saying publicly that the House should pass the bill if Democrats agreed to name conferees to negotiate the full-year extension early next year.
The bill passed the House Friday morning by unaninimous consent.
“We can blame Speaker Boehner if we want to, but we were fighting an uphill battle,” Gowdy continued. “To have the Senate pass a two-month extension with the number of Republican votes that they got — I’ve taken naps that lasted longer than two months.”
Some have speculated that the payroll tax debate has irreparably harmed Boehner’s Speakership, and that he has lost control of his caucus to a Tea Party faction.
Gowdy did not dispute that notion, and he paused for a few seconds before answering Cavuto’s question as to whether Boehner should maintain his Speakership.
“We didn’t have a comment section to our conference call,” Gowdy said, referring to a Thursday conference call in which Boehner informed Republicans they should concede to the Senate-passed bill. “We typically do, where we can ask questions and register complaints. That wasn’t an option this afternoon. It probably means we’d still be on the phone call, if he’d opened it up to questions.”
Er, he just had the opportunity and WIMPED OUT!
At this point, I no longer care if the GOP takes the Senate if they are simply going to operate as rudderless, Machiavellian backstabbers.
Support the most Conservative candidate in the Senate primaries- if they lose, so what? If they win, then maybe we can start to right this sinking ship.
All of you saying Gowdy couldn’t have won. )....McConnell couldn’t have won either but Gowdy was condemning him for not standing on principle. Apparently you didn’t read what Gowdy said. He wants McConnell to stand on principle but he won’t do it. Pot, meet black.
The GOP House has no excuse. They proved their spinelessness when they had sole control over raising the debt limit, and caved.
Yes, the Dems have the President and Senate, but the House caves to them and gives them everything they wan’t. They don’t even fight for legislative gridlock anymore. They cave.
You’re an irrelevant jackass and made an irrelevant point.
“I cannot understand when the Senate is going to find something they care enough about to stand on policy and principle.”
Never
Yes, by all means, lets make sure all the tea party frosh lose their seat over a small battle so that we can have a congress with absolutely no good folks in it.
Brilliant.
The idea that they were dictated to by anyone seems to me to be a stretch. Boehner passed it by unanimous consent. Anyone could have objected. No one did.
Conservatives need to realize an important fact, which is that if you control only the House, not the Senate, and not the White House, then you can’t expect to get much of your agenda passed. You can sometimes block things, but you can’t force enactment of anything over the objection of the Senate and White House. The best you can do is posture, and then give in, which is what they did.
Time to let the country burn if that’s the choice.
N0bama in ‘12 and we can start over in 2016.
Just an excuse. You could have told him to go to hell. Get some backbone.
I won't be here in the US when the future comes due, so why should I care?
Let's party like it's A.D. 475!
About the third post you’ve made in this thread demonstrating not a whiff of the first idea of how leadership works in congress. Equating a frosh congressman with ML of the senate is blitheringly a waste of time. Yet you do.
Civics education anyone?
the house went home, Boehner called a vote, with 14 repubs ^ 6 Rats present, of which only 2 took part in passing the bill. ( No one could get back in time to file an objection). it took 90 seconds. Boehner is gutless.
Edmund
I would not put words in your mouth nor thoughts in your head, but it appears that for elected Republicans there is simply no such thing as a hill worth dying for. The GOP controls the House which means they control every penny the government spends. It takes remarkable incompetence, cowardice, and corruption to fail leveraging that into fundamental reform.
Angelo Codevilla was right, there is a Ruling Class with its overwhelmingly gargantuan constituency, and the Productive Class, which will continue to edge towards Going Galt. I do not believe the system can be fixed until thgat gargantuan constituency tells the electeds that they do not want gubmint goodies.
Ain’t gonna happen.
Pete Ferron is right. What we have is two “rival” gangs of train robbers (GOP/Rat) boarding the train, not knowing the bridge up around the curve has collapsed. The actuarial reality is pretty much set in concrete.
Bingo.
He voted 'yea', some upholding to 'principle'.
I'm sitting here listening to a Hannity rerun.
Who is he interviewing? Sarah Palin.
Brought back fond, exciting memories of a 'candidate' I could believe in.
Now, just another meaningless Primary. IMO, none of the likely winners will do what needs to be done.
>> I would not put words in your mouth nor thoughts in your head, but it appears that for elected Republicans there is simply no such thing as a hill worth dying for. >>
That is true, which is why it is sort of stupid for us to get all riled up over a hill that absolutely was NOT worth dying for. We’ll have plenty of chances to bitch at them over significant issues for just the reason you stated.
In other words, you think you might be disagreeing with me, but actually you are making my case. This is not the hill to die on and this freshman is not the guy to lead it. There will be other chances.
I am not sure that this was or was not the hill to die on. My point is that I have yet to see ANYTHING the GOP “leadership” is willing to take a principled stand on (sorry for the grammar.)
Many think the hill was Obamacare, but the GOP could have stopped it in Senate Committee and would not.
Perhaps we do agree that the discussion is meaningless as the system built on the entitlement mentality cannot be reformed. Period. Collapse is the only curative. It is the only thing that purged the collectivism of the Soviet Union. That aftermath has not yet been rosy....
I do not think Obama Care could have been stopped in Senate committee.
That’s not what a committee staffer told me. One of the witches of Maine went along with it when it could have been killed procedurally.
The Wall Street Journal influences politics how?
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