Michael Gaynor
Boehner blew it big time!
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By Michael Gaynor
April 12, 2011

When you are racing toward a cliff, slowing down by a few miles an hour is NOT enough.

Dick Morris and Eileen McCann are right:

"John Boehner has just given away the Republican victory of 2010 at the bargaining table. Like the proverbial Uncle Sam who always wins the war but loses the peace, he has unilaterally disarmed the Republican Party by showing that he will not shut down the government and will, instead, willingly give way on even the most modest of cuts in order to avoid it. He now has no arrows left in his quiver.

"Having failed to stand firm for just $61 billion in cuts in a budget of $3.7 trillion, how can we expect him to stand firm over the debt limit extension or the 2012 budget? We can't. The excellent budget proposals of Paul Ryan are no more than a pipe dream now. Boehner has...sold us out now and he'll sell us out again."

Boehner signaled that he would settle for the liberal media establishment's Miss Conviviality award instead of standing strong and tall when he whined that Republicans controlled only one half of one-third of the federal government.

When it comes to blocking, that CAN be effectively done with LESS.

Remember the financial crisis that put Obama in the White House?

A minority of Senate Democrats kept it on course by blocking the Republican effort to put Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac under the supervision of the United States Treasury.

President Bush pursued the authority and John McCain led the effort in the United States Senate.

But Senate Democrats refused to let the matter come to a vote.

Wikipedia on the Community Reinvestment Act:

"George W. Bush Administration Proposed Changes of 2003

"In 2003, the Bush Administration recommended what the NY Times called 'the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.' This change was to move governmental supervision of two of the primary agents guaranteeing subprime loans, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac under a new agency created within the Department of the Treasury. However, it did not alter the implicit guarantee that Washington will bail the companies out if they run into financial difficulty; that perception enabled them to issue debt at significantly lower rates than their competitors. The changes were generally opposed along Party lines and eventually failed to happen. Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) claimed of the thrifts 'These two entities — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not facing any kind of financial crisis, the more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.' Representative Mel Watt (D-NC) added 'I don't see much other than a shell game going on here, moving something from one agency to another and in the process weakening the bargaining power of poorer families and their ability to get affordable housing.'"

Chris Stirewalt, in "How He Did It: Three Keys to Boehner's Budget Victory" (www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/04/09/did-keys-boehners-budget-victory/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxnews%2Fpolitics+%28Internal+-+Politics+-+Text%29), lauded Boehner as "the primary author of a compromise to keep the government operating for the rest of the year with the largest spending reduction in history — 63 percent of the original GOP request of $61 billion" who had won "a potpourri of sweeteners, like up-or-down votes on politically painful subjects like President Obama's health care law and federal subsidies for Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provider."

Stirewalt's conclusion: "Not too shabby for a guy who held only one of three seats at the negotiating table."

Actually, pathetic for a fellow who owes his Speakership to the Tea Party and held a veto.

McCain and McCann are not deceived by that "potpourri of sweeteners."

Clear-eyed, they declare:

* Obamacare will not be defunded.

* The EPA will not be blocked from regulating carbon.

* The NLRB will not be stopped from forcing an end to secret ballots in union contests.

* Medicaid will not be block granted and turned over to the states.

* Welfare spending will not be cut nor work requirements imposed.

* The FCC will not be stopped from regulating talk radio.

When you are racing toward a cliff, slowing down by a few miles an hour is NOT enough.

© Michael Gaynor

 

The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
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Michael Gaynor

Michael J. Gaynor has been practicing law in New York since 1973. A former partner at Fulton, Duncombe & Rowe and Gaynor & Bass, he is a solo practitioner admitted to practice in New York state and federal courts and an Association of the Bar of the City of New York member... (more)

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