If Rick Scott is Lex Luthor (per Atrios), John Boehner is turning into our own Doctor Evil. Everyone laughed at him when he settled the last budget clash for less than half a million billion dollars of real cuts, so now he will let America default on its debt unless Obama agrees to sacrifice Two! Trillion! Dollars! to supply side Jesus.
Our days of not taking his orange crying clown face seriously have certainly come to a middle.
Woodrow "asim" Jarvis Hill
That line is the best quote from FIREFLY ever.
I almost feel sorry for Agent Orange. He’s just trying to be a 2-faced politco, but now you’ve got a bunch of (mostly) pissed-off and united Democrats (shock! horror!) on one side, and a bunch of hyper-inspired “no surrender” GOPers on the other. On top of which, the moneyed interests aren’t going to let him run the debt default scam on their watch.
Unless he’s actually as good as some people are hinting he is, these budget negotiations are gonna leave (another) bruise.
Comrade Javamanphil
I really do not see how this ends well. At least now I know why we can’t have nice things.
piratedan
I think TRMS has her own pet theory about Mr. Boehner and based on the evidence thus far, I believe that she may be right, he simply sucks at his job.
Emma
Going by previous performance, his supply side Jesus had better supply a couple of miracles.
Calouste
Obama is throwing the GOP another grenade to juggle with: he’s going to give a speech about immigration reform today.
Joseph Nobles
I posted a link in ABL’s gays in the military thread, but it’s just as appropriate here. It’s a few Tea Partyers (two in Minuteman drag) rolling their eyes at the RINO’s and saying what they might accept for a vote on raising the debt ceiling (repeal of DADT, repeal of Obamacare, leave the effing military alone, etc.). One guy was all hopped up on the notion of approving a tiny bump each month, wringing concession after concession from their enemies and hearing the lamentations of their welfare queens.
mr. whipple
@Joseph Nobles:
Speaking of Teatards in drag…
overeducated
This is not really surprising. I expected the Republicans to double down this week after Obama crushed them on nearly all fronts last week.
The fact of the matter is that the Republicans are going to need to do something dramatic to win next year. If the economy stays middling or improves Obama is a shoe in. So the obvious thing to do is crash the economy. Not raising the debt ceiling will have serious immediate and long term consequences for the country (most notably it will lead to default and the loss of “reserve currency status” for the US dollar). It will literally wreck the country. However it will happen on Obama’s watch… Even if educated folks KNOW that the Republicans were the proximate cause, the vast majority of the public pay little attention to legislative nuance and will blame the President, especially when the noise machine gets going and accuses the President of “not being willing to compromise”.
In quieter moments I ask myself: “Would the Republicans really be willing to entirely trash this country just so they could win the next election”? I am disturbed by the conclusion I reach.
Joseph Nobles
@mr. whipple: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s one of the guys from this thing. And that’s got the transcript of all the places soldiers will be enticed into having gay sex that William Temple can think of. As it turns out, he can think of a lot.
dr. bloor
Does Boner turn blue when he holds his breath until he gets his way, or does he get oranger?
Wilson Heath
So zombies are orange, feed on spending cuts, and are deathly afraid of tax cuts. This is a weird as frak zombie apocalypse.
Omnes Omnibus
Wrong thread. Do carry on.
Ash Can
OK, last time Boehner went into financial negotiations with the prez, he got slapped down on all the culture-war horseshit the House Republicans tried to load into the spending bill. This time he’s going into financial negotiations with the guy who just put the hit on Osama bin Laden. I really, really don’t see things going well for him, or for the GOP’s teabagging fans.
geg6
I, personally, think it will be hard to beat the incompetence of Dennis Hastert. But Boehner is going for the record. He might be the worst Speaker in my lifetime by the time it’s over. Hopefully, that will be in 2012 and we’ll have the (arguably, perhaps first) second best speaker of my lifetime back. Speaking of whom, she’s been pretty awesome as Minority Leader. Nancy SMASH carries on.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/159797-pelosi-fundraises-off-republican-war-on-women
terraformer
Well, anything that the Dems ultimately do to assuage The Orange One when it comes to the debt ceiling is something that they wanted to do all along. There is really no reason to capitulate.
But “our” side has a remarkable ability to ensure that conservatives rarely pay any price when they step in the doo-doo, and indeed often help them scrape it off before anyone sees.
RosiesDad
@geg6:
Boehner’s sole qualification for the job was that he had carried water for the leadership for a long time and he was next in line. But there is nothing in his history that suggests that he is going to be able to bring the factions of his caucus together to create legislation that has any chance of clearing a Democratic majority Senate. He is not going to have a happy couple of years. Waaah.
Jonathan
to be fair, that should read “Half a BILLION Dollars”, not half a million… your point still stands though!
SFAW
But-but-but Nancy Pelosi was EEEEE-VULLL! And a “tough broad” (if you know what I mean, wink-wink). And a Lieberal! And did I mention Evul?
But the real question I have is: if Ms. Temple is leading the Tea
BaggersParty, why is s/he dressed up as a Colonial regular? Or has the original Boston Tea Party now become a side skirmish in the Battle ofBreed’sBunker Hill?Social outcast
Wall Street and corporate leaders will not allow this to happen. Fighting with Obama is one thing. His post-Obama bump will wither away in a couple of weeks. But you do not piss off your money men. The tea partiers will learn what the religious right learned about the republican leadership long ago- money talks, bullshit walks to the local tea party protest and holds up a stupid sign about keeping government out of medicare.
Marmot
“Supply-side Jesus” is a nice turn of phrase. That’s all.
Will Reks
@RosiesDad:
Are you sure that the Republicans don’t have a good shot at taking the Senate next year?
ChrisS
Since I pretty much get all my news from balloon-juice or Atrios, twitter, and facebook these days … am I better off or worse off?
I don’t know. Part of me enjoys being largely ignorant because nothing is fucking changing with the state of the GOP, except that they are getting down with more and more crazy.
roshan
From the State which elected Lex Luthor as governor:
If your ideas can’t cut it in the real world then there is just one thing to do – buy out everyone.
Will Reks
@RosiesDad:
Well, I suppose “happy couple of years” means until the next election. I should put my reading glasses on.
Napoleon
@Rosiest:
I also think they did not want to put a southerner in since the party was all but a rump southern party when he wachosenen to lead thcaucusas.
UofAZGrad
Did anyone catch the part about revenue increases in Boehner’s speech? Guy at least has a sense of humor bordering on slapstick
Dennis SGMM
The GOP threats regarding the debt ceiling remind me of the beginning of “Blazing Saddles.” You know; the scene where Sheriff Bart holds his own gun to his head while issuing threats.
Marmot
@dr. bloor: Depends on the shade of blue — the combination’ll range from lilac to magenta, I think.
wvng
I disagree that Boehner is a terrible Speaker. Given the tea bagger driven realities of republican electoral politics right now, I don’t see how anyone else in that position could possibly do better. Whoever is there simply must appease an insane base that will primary any republican who doesn’t do what they want.
I’m not saying Boehner would be a good Speaker under different conditions. I am simply saying that position is rigged to explode, no matter which republican has the job.
JAHILL10
All the Democrats have to do is wait the gentleman from Ooopah-Loompah out. Once crunch time comes, the Wall Street types will call the shots, not Boehner. Obama may make a couple of meaningless concessions like he did with the so-called budget negotiations to keep his bipartisan street cred with the independents, but if this idiot hasn’t figured out who he’s dealing with by now, nothing will teach him. What will be fun is when he comes out of this ploy with no major concessions AGAIN, then seeing the teatards turn on him. My guess is the tears are going to plow streaks through his spray on tan when they vote him out of the speaker’s spot for someone with real cache in the mental ward.
Tony P.
@Marmot: Credit where due: Supply Side Jesus was invented by now-Senator Al Franken. See chapter 37 of Lies And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair And Balanced Look At The Right.
–TP
Chris
An Austin Powers quote followed by a Firefly one – EX-CELLENT!!!
I’ve used that Firefly quote myself re conservatives.
Chris
@wvng:
That’s a good point.
Poor Boehner. You gotta dance with them that brung ya.
Marmot
@Tony P.: Should’ve guessed! That Franken is like the political equivalent of Steve Allen–it’s hard to find something he hasn’t already thought of.
RosiesDad
@Will Reks: I think that as of right now, the GOP has just as good a chance of winning a majority in the Senate as they do of losing their majority in the House. Because what will decide the election will be how things are going a year from now.
Sort of off-topic: I met a guy who is a railway planner in NJ this past weekend. He lamented that the problem with this country is that all long term planning is based on two and four year election cycles. As a result, we have no integrated long term infrastructure or energy plans that look forward to the next 10, 20 or 50 years. I think this shortcoming–which is directly a result of our political process–will be the reason for the demise of the America of my childhood over the next decades.
lacp
@roshan: Nothing new here – Henry George (one of my heroes) complained about this in the 19th century.
Dennis SGMM
@UofAZGrad:
That was rich considering the GOPers’ stouthearted defense of petroleum industry subsidies and tax breaks yesterday.
TooManyPaulWs
This isn’t funny. The Republicans are genuinely poised to f-ck us over: either by getting the Democrats terrified of a global economic collapse to where they will flinch (again) and kill off minor programs that will add to our nation’s Death By A Thousand Cuts, or by driving the whole bus over the cliff like they want… to crash and burn a government the Far Right really wants to crash and burn (we’re talking about a bunch of psychotics who truly believe the Rapture is coming – either May 21st 2011 or Dec 21st 2012, pick your poison – and so destroying government would in their minds merely accelerate the approach of Crystal Dragon Jesus in their favor).
artem1s
@RosiesDad:
seems to me that term limits at the state level was a key ingredient to the rise of the wingnut crazy. Once they got a taste of the power of driving out a capable long term incumbent the rabid really started to take hold. And the money people saw how affective it was to play the crazies to turn over seats that had been held for a long time. it was just a matter of time until it moved to the federal level. I imagine that Mr. Speaker is beginning to understand how Robespierre felt. It will be interesting to see if Boehner survives the Reign of Teahad.
NonyNony
@wvng:
That’s actually why I consider him a terrible Speaker.
Given the situation with the GOP back in 2008 there were two ways Boehner could have moved forward. He could have had a plan for what he would do when he got the Speaker position back again or he could have stepped down as Majority Leader and let someone else have it.
He did neither – he actively worked to become Speaker without having a clue as to what he was going to do with his caucus once he got there.
That’s the mark of a terrible Speaker – he’d be bad even if his caucus were more reasonable because he has no idea what he’s doing and, more importantly, doesn’t care why he’s doing it.
Niques
Any chance (yeah, I know) Boner et al are playing the long game?
It is only the insane right who think they can hold the debt ceiling ransom — everyone else, pubs and dems alike, know who controls the strings. And this following on the heels of the NeoCons insisting all repubs vote to eliminate Medicare before they themselves backed down on the idea.
Maybe they recognize 2012 as a lost cause for the republican party, so figure eliminating the newbie teabaggers from the equation now can only help in 2016.
Just a thought.
NonyNony
@artem1s:
It helped accelerate it, that’s for sure.
There’s nothing like completely removing any incentive for doing your job well to get people to stop doing their job well.
In retrospect the whole idea of “term limits” leading to better government is so utterly and completely ridiculous, that I can only mock 18-year-old me who thought it would be a great idea for Ohio. In my defense, I am an idiot. I don’t know how that excuses the majority of the folks in my state who voted for them though.
JCT
@Chris:
In this case I think this is more like waking up in bed with someone you picked up in a really seedy bar. The Republicans in Congress were more than happy to whore themselves out to the Teabaggers to increase the number of Republicans in Congress. Now they have a huge number of incoherent, intolerant imbeciles to deal with; yes, elections do have consequences. Poor Boehner my ass, I hope Obama ropes that dope up and down Pennsylvania Ave before he refuses to budge.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@piratedan: While I’m not one to defend the AOS, and I suspect TRMS is in fact correct, wouldn’t it be pretty hard not to suck at his job under these circumstances?
Zifnab
So has Boehner completely given up on writing a budget and just resorted to issuing ransom notes? Does his two trillion dollar budget cut have – like – a budget bill behind it?
I mean, he realizes that the entirety of US revenue is capped at around $2.3 trillion, right? Are we just supposed to tell the entire US government to take a year off? *sigh*
jenniebee
Oooh a lefty political blogger who quotes Firefly! I’ll be in my bunk…
Sharl
Franken’s Supply Side Jesus, audio version & animation by Wes Ball (5:33).
aimai
@dr. bloor:
Perhaps others have pointed out that blue and orange combined make, if I am correct, brown? Maybe he’s going for a better tan.
aimai
rikryah
Orange Julius is a clown. a straight up unserious about governing clown.
Surly Duff
From the article: Rev. William Temple, a tea-party activist, & Bob Vander Plaats, an influential Christian leader in Iowa, are the two sources used to provide the argument that the debt ceiling is a “myth” and should not be raised.
Glad to know that our media can find relevant, knowledgable individuals that find all of their economic theories from tiny baby jesus.
ChrisS
@Zifnab:
And I assume that all defense spending, fossil fuel and agricultural subsidies, and corporate welfare are all untouchable.
Compromise for you but not for me.
I’d take some cuts in social spending, offset with cuts in GOP spending, with increased non-highway infrastructure spending. But that would be sane.
Xenocrates
JB) (Places pinky finger at corner of mouth) We demand ONE MILLION DOLLARS!
#2) Uh, Dr. Evil; that’s really not too much money these days…
Seriously, could Boehner look any more like a lapdog for the Tea Party? He controls zilch…and that idiot child Cantor is just waiting to knock him off his perch. I pray for the day when they both sail off into the obscurity from which they arose…
piratedan
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): compare and contrast… how well did Nancy Smash do with the Blue Dogs amidst her party in 2008-2010 and the amount of legislation that was passed out of the Congress with nearly a fourth of her numbers being made up by the Blue Dog Caucus and what has come out of this current congressional conga line….. There are two things that John of Orange has done, getting meaningless gesture legislation passed (the job creating abortion restriction legislation) and the Ryan/medicare fiasco and what else exactly?
fhtagn
@aimai:
Actually, you get this….
http://www.shopncaasports.com/NCAASports_Illinois_Fighting_Illini/Illinois_Fighting_Illini_Youth_Navy_Blue-Orange_Deluxe_Team_Uniform_Set
fhtagn
I suspect that no-one wants to see the government shut down except the hard-right cranks, and if Boehner is going to play chicken this obviously, I kinda sorta doubt that it will play well with regular folks, who probably thought all of this had been settled a month back.
Still, ya gotta feel for Boehner – signed up for the Tee Party, got the Tea Party instead. Hello Kitty Jesus does work in mysterious ways….
Marmot
@Sharl: Nice! I’m a little surprised I haven’t seen Supply Side Jesus before. “Leprosy is a matter of personal responsibility!”
EconWatcher
Obama is playing with much better cards on this one than he was in the budget battle, because he knows the marching orders Boehner has from his financial backers. I hope and expect he’ll get this done without any particularly hamrful concessions.
Ash Can
@Xenocrates: If Cantor ever took over the Speaker’s job, it’d be such a non-stop high-pitched whinefest about how mean everyone’s being to him that no one in DC would get any sleep.
geg6
@NonyNony:
Exactly.
Nemesis
Saw a douchnozzle on CSPAN this am. He was outing the gop for their disingenuous budget. Dude was wearing a revolutionary war outfit. He looked every bit as silly as does Orange Foolius when he threatens the debt ceiling wont be lifted.
ChrisB
So let’s see, if Boehner is Dr. Evil . . .
Newt Gingrich as Fat Bastard?
Eric Cantor as Number 2?
Jean Schmidt as Frau Farbissina?
Candidates for Mini-Me and Mr. Bigglesworth?
piratedan
@ChrisB: Louie Gohmert for Mr. Biggleworth, although I suspect that’s an insult to Cats, I was thinking Ms. Bachmann as Frau Farbissina
fhtagn
@piratedan:
James Dobson as Fat Bastard and Joel Osteen as Number 2, with Eric Cantor as Mini-Me.
piratedan
@fhtagn: and Glen Beck as Goldmember perhaps?
fhtagn
And Boehner goes for the suicide run….
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/05/boehner-backs-means-testing-medicare.php?ref=fpa
It’s pure sozialism, I tell you. The
RedOrange Menace is on the rampage!Georgia Pig
Do not take your adversaries lightly. This could actually be a smart move by Boehner. By making such a ridiculous demand, Boehner seems to be trying to set up a narrative that: (1)we need really, really big spending cuts, thus de-emphasizing the revenue side; and 2) Obama held those cuts hostage to the debt ceiling. While it’s disingenuous bullshit, it could be a clever play if executed properly because it reinforces a propaganda line that Obama is an out-of-control spendthrift. Boehner will plan to ultimately fold pretty early on the debt ceiling without extracting much of anything, because that enhances the narrative that he’s just trying to do the right thing, unlike Obama. I’m not sure how Obama would respond, but one thing that comes to mind is pre-emptively offering some more cuts, with an emerging option being withdrawal from Afghanistan. The public mood is pretty good for that and it’s a divisive issue in Boehner’s own caucus. A cut is a cut in the eyes of the public, especially with the Donald out there bitching about spending money on schools in Afghanistan. Oh, and how about ending tax breaks for millionaires, John, if the budget situation is that bad?
Zifnab
@NonyNony:
He knows what he wants to do. He wants to WIN! He wants to win the House. He wants to win the Senate. He wants his party in the White House. He wants a majority on the Supreme Court.
That’s his goal. He wants to be in charge.
geg6
@Georgia Pig:
Except all, literally all, the polling shows that the public isn’t buying what they’re selling. What the public wants by gigantic margins is tax increases on the wealthy first and perhaps a little cutting around the edges, but no cuts on SS, Medicare, or education.
4tehlulz
@Georgia Pig:
>smart move
>John Boehner
Pick one.
Georgia Pig
@4tehlulz: Yeah, and that kind of arrogance gets your clock cleaned. Thankfully, Obama doesn’t seem to suffer from it. As many have noted, Boehner doesn’t exactly have a strong hand, and his caucus is generally a clown show. However, that doesn’t mean he can’t hurt you, especially since he has a lot of money backing him.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
I feel good tonight. I finally got something I always wanted and that’s important. It really is. I finally got some hostages. Well, you see so many people with hostages nowadays and you say “Hey, I’d like some, too!”. So I’ve got three of ’em, they’re really nice people. We get along great, they’re tied in a sack outside at the top of the flagpole. And I’m gonna blow ’em up at midnight, too. Unless, of course, I get my three demands. A hundred thousand in cash, getaway car and I want the letter M stricken from the English language. See, you have to make one crazy demand, that way, if you get caught, you can plead insanity. Ha. Getaway car. What other gags are there?
steve martin, as performed by whole wheat toast boehner.
MBL
The greatest line from Firefly is “You are beginning to damage my calm.”
geg6
Meanwhile, John Kyl is thinking that Boehner is aiming too low:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_05/kyl_thinks_big029469.php
6 beeeeeeeeeeeellion in cuts or the world economy gets it to the head! And somewhere, Paul Ryan is smiling and saying, at last, a serious person. And courageous, too!
4tehlulz
@Georgia Pig: And he just went in front of his moneymen and said that he’d ruin them in order to save them. Not my idea of good judgment or intelligence.
fhtagn
@geg6:
I bet Sullivan climaxed so hard he’s still wiping the jizz out of his beard.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
@ChrisB:
i like newt gingrich as chucky.
mitt romney as dick lecter from pootie tang
anne coulter as ghostface
Georgia Pig
@4tehlulz: He’s not going to do that, and they know it. That was all wink-wink, nudge-nudge bullshit. The biggie is that he floated mean-testing for Medicare. As Josh Marshall pointed out, that doesn’t do squat in terms of savings unless you get down into the middle class retirees. But there are some idiot Dem senators who may go for that because they think, hey, all my friends are either rich or have Congressional healthcare, so go for that instead of getting rid of the upper bracket tax cuts! It’ll be so bipartisan! That is a trap.
geg6
@Georgia Pig:
Claire McCaskill comes immediately to mind for some reason.
Tone in DC
@fhtagn:
See now… that’s just WRONG.
chopper
@Zifnab:
ah, the hotblack desiato gambit.
Calouste
@chopper:
I knew the real estate market was depressed, but closing up shop for an entire year?
fhtagn
@Tone in DC:
It was a deeply SERIOUS response… serious in the sense of the Ryan plan being serious.