Free Republic

Watching the Republican presidential debates, a lay observer might think that the GOP is divided between elected “insiders,” like Senator Marco Rubio and “outsiders,” like businesswoman Carly Fiorina. The truth is that divisions exist between the Congressional Republicans as well. As the leader of the largest Republican majority in the House since 1928, Speaker John Boehner shoulders the unenviable task of pushing the GOP’s agenda while dealing with members of the party who want to shut down the federal government...again. Boehner was reelected to his position as speaker of the house in January. But during the most recent in camera...

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy slammed the Republican-controlled Senate on Friday for blocking action on Obamacare, tax reform and more while representatives are working hard to push conservative measures through. "The latest metric shows this is the second-most productive Congress of any Republican in the majority," the California Republican told Fox News' "America's Newsroom" co-host Martha MacCallum, "but what's stopping us is the Senate." The House has two bills on the floor that could affect Planned Parenthood and the abortion services it provides, McCarthy said, at the same time many in the Senate are arguing about whether to shut down...

A new effort to remove Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) as Speaker of the House is reportedly making the rounds of Congress again. The House Freedom Caucus, which is about 40 members strong, is demanding more fortitude from their House speaker to fight the battles they believe voters entrusted them with when they rewarded them a sweeping GOP victory last November. One of those battles is defunding Planned Parenthood. After the Center for Medical Progress exposed the pro-abortion organization in a shocking investigation into its inhumane practices, defunding became a top priority for hill conservatives. So much so that the group...

Multiple House Republicans want Senate leaders to “go nuclear” over the Obama administration’s deal with Iran now that Democrats have stymied efforts to derail the accord by conventional means. A small but growing number of GOP lawmakers say that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) should invoke the “nuclear option” to change Senate rules and prevent a filibuster on a resolution to kill the deal. Their angst is intensified by their belief that Democrats will likely be able to block legislation withholding federal funds from Planned Parenthood, a standoff that increases the chances of a government shutdown. Less than two...

House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) is bracing for what could be the toughest weeks of his speakership as several dozen conservatives in his party are threatening to topple him unless he is more ferocious with Democrats during the upcoming fiscal showdowns. That internal Republican feud has increased the chances that Washington, for the second time in two years, could stumble into a shutdown of the federal government. The speaker’s lieutenants are openly girding for battle with the small but influential bloc of anti-Boehner conservatives, who have signaled that if Boehner cuts any deal that they don’t like with Hill...

A senior Senate Republican leadership source reached out to discuss the case I laid out this morning concerning a possible path to breaking Democrats' Iran deal filibuster. He said Majority Leader McConnell will schedule another cloture vote early next week, likely on Tuesday. If and when that fails (assuming none of the 42 filibustering Democrats relent), GOP leadership is considering a number of options, including forcing votes on one or more highly-charged amendments related to the Iran deal. This maneuver would respond to Democrats' politicized posturing in kind, contriving scenarios in which filibuster-sustaining votes would be politically painful to cast,...

A senior Senate Republican leadership source reached out to discuss the case I laid out this morning (linked an excerpted by Allahpundit here) concerning a possible path to breaking Democrats’ Iran deal filibuster. He said Majority Leader McConnell will schedule another cloture vote early next week, likely on Tuesday. If and when that fails (assuming none of the 42 filibustering Democrats relent), GOP leadership is considering a number of options, including forcing votes on one or more highly-charged amendments related to the Iran deal. This maneuver would respond to Democrats’ politicized posturing in kind, contriving scenarios in which filibuster-sustaining...

The specter of a nuclear-armed Islamic Republic of Iran is the single greatest threat facing our nation, and if President Barack Obama's catastrophic nuclear deal with the mullahs goes forward, there will be nothing to stop them from obtaining a nuclear bomb. Astonishingly, we do not even know how bad the deal is because the Administration has not released all of the information relating to side deals with Iran as they are obligated to do under the terms of Corker-Cardin, the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act that Congress passed and the President signed into law. Today I sent Senate Majority...

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said Thursday she is astonished by a judge's ruling that clears the way for a Republican challenge to President Obama's health care law to move ahead. Pelosi told reporters at her weekly news conference she's confident that Wednesday's ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Rosemary Collyer will be overturned. Collyer said the House can pursue its claim that the Obama administration violated the Constitution when it spent public money not appropriated by Congress. Republicans hailed the court ruling, and Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Thursday that "this victory sends a strong message that no one...

In Senator Ted Cruz’s excellent Senate floor speech against President Obama’s catastrophic Iran deal, he urged Republican leadership – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) and House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) – to reject the claim that Congress must vote on the deal in the next few days. He is absolutely right. By the unambiguous terms of the Corker law, the period for congressional review of the Iran deal has never begun because Obama has failed to provide the entirety of it.

House Republican leaders are delaying a vote on the Iran nuclear deal scheduled for Wednesday because of a rebellion from rank-and-file conservatives. The House was to hold a procedural vote to begin 11 hours of debate on a resolution disapproving the deal at 1 p.m. Instead, they will gather at 4 p.m. to discuss strategy. "We will continue the conversation on Iran from this morning and discuss strategy for the rest of the week," a GOP leadership aide said. The House subsequently went into recess shortly after noon once leadership called off the procedural vote. GOP leaders had to change...

Today’s vote has now been delayed and the House GOP caucus will meet at 4 p.m. to find a way forward because John Boehner once again miscalculated the degree of support he had in his own caucus .Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus are demanding that the Obama administration send side deals between Iran and international nuclear inspectors to Congress as part of the Iran deal now under consideration. Opponents of the deal have argued that the clock on congressional consideration of the deal has not even begun until these side deals are submitted. Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) has...

House Republican leaders are facing a revolt by GOP lawmakers over plans to vote on a measure to disapprove of the Iran nuclear deal. Speaker John Boehner and other GOP leaders got an earful Wednesday morning from lawmakers who say President Barack Obama has not disclosed so-called "side deals" between the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran, and therefore is crosswise with the law that gives Congress review power over the accord. GOP leaders are likely to change their approach Wednesday, and are now considering a vote on Rep. Peter Roskam's (R-Ill.) resolution that would delay a disapproval vote because...

Faced with a potential mutiny on a procedural vote to bring up a disapproval resolution on the Iran nuclear agreement, House GOP leadership is considering delaying the anti-deal vote and taking up different legislation stating that the president has not held up his side of the bargain. GOP leaders emerged from the Republican Conference’s weekly meeting Wednesday morning expressing some uncertainty about whether they should proceed with the anti-deal resolution. “We had a very healthy conversation with our members this morning,” Speaker John A. Boehner told reporters. “Certainly some interest amongst the ideas offered by [Rep. Mike] Pompeo and [Rep....

Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina said Sunday she is disappointed in congressional GOP leadership, arguing that if they don’t move swiftly to pass conservative legislation, they “should go.” Mentioning Speaker of the House John Boehner and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell by name, Fiorina said at a campaign stop in Bedford, N.H., that the Republican leaders haven’t done enough since the 2014 election. Fiorina said the Republican-controlled Congress should pass bills to institute a 20-week abortion ban and defund Planned Parenthood, secure the border, and rein in government regulations regardless of whether President Obama threatens to veto the legislation, adding...

MORGANTON, North Carolina — Speaker Rep. John Boehner’s worst nightmare is on the rise here in rural North Carolina. Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) is gaining steam as a clearly coordinated, highly orchestrated effort to remove Boehner as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives—and fix a broken Congress that no longer represents the wishes of the American people—comes into much clearer focus. Meadows invited Breitbart News to accompany him on a district visit, and the concerns he discussed with his constituents offer a microcosm of the issues America wants Congress to address. Everyone here agrees: John Boehner needs to...

A day before the August recess, when Rep. Mark Meadows announced a legislative move to strip Speaker John A. Boehner of his gavel, few would have predicted that Donald Trump would be the summer’s biggest political story. But with the billionaire developer consistently topping the polls, and with most theories on his ascendance citing a general disgust with business as usual in Washington, Meadows sees Trump as a harbinger for his colleagues in the House. “The Trump phenomenon is not just with Donald Trump; it’s with re-election with members as well,” Meadows told CQ Roll Call Wednesday, “and there’s a...

Hillary Clinton confidant Sid Blumenthal had nothing but bad things to say about incoming House Speaker John Boehner on the day Republicans won back the House from Democrats in 2010, according to new emails released by the State Department late Monday. "Boehner is despised by the younger, more conservative members of the House Republican Conference," Blumenthal wrote to Clinton. "They are repelled by his personal behavior." "He is louche, alcoholic, lazy, and without any commitment to any principle," he added. According to dictionary.com, "louche" means "dubious, shady, disreputable." "He is not Gingrich, the natural leader of a 'revolution,' riding the...

Report: John Boehner Shocks at Fundraiser by What He Calls Ted Cruz: ‘I About Fell on the Floor’ Aug. 27, 2015 Speaker John Boehner shocked attendees of a Colorado fundraiser Wednesday night by referring to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) as a “jacka**,” two people at the event told The Daily Caller. The Ohio Republican, who has come under fire from hard-line conservatives within his party, said he was happy Cruz was campaigning for president because it keeps the “jacka**” out of Washington, The Daily Caller reported. “I don’t think it’s terribly speaker-like, and I think it kind of goes against...

Port Clinton, Ohio, Police Chief Robert Hickman was seen in photos wearing a Confederate flag vest while on vacation in South Dakota.An Ohio police chief isn’t really addressing the controversy that has unfolded since he was seen in photos wearing a Confederate flag vest while vacationing in South Dakota, WKYC reports. Port Clinton Police Chief Robert Hickman said that he doesn’t “look at the Confederate flag as a racist symbol,” with some residents defending him, saying he doesn’t have a “racist bone” in his body. “I think he was just wearing a shirt,” Port Clinton resident Bryan Meek told the...