Boehner Wants Debt Limit Talks With Obama

Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, said Thursday that the White House should be prepared to negotiate with House Republicans on the debt limit – despite President Barack Obama’s insistence that he wants to extend it later this summer without strings attached.

“It’s easy to make a statement to that effect,” Boehner said of Obama at his Thursday morning news conference ,”but it’s just not reality.”

Of course, Boehner himself does not appear to have settled on exactly what he would be negotiating for, considering House GOP members emerged from Wednesday’s debt limit brainstorming session without a consensus on what to fight for.

Still, Boehner indicated that House Republicans would likely be seeking deeper spending cuts. “The fact is, that if the Treasury Department needs to pay the bills, the debt limit has to be dealt with, and should be dealt with in a responsible way,” he said. “[Obama] can’t continue to increase the debt limit without doing something about what’s driving the increase in the debt limit, and that is out of control spending.”

Boehner also took the opportunity to tout the House’s vote, set for later in the day, on a bill that would fully repeal Obamacare, the third of its kind since the GOP gained control of the chamber in 2011.

Standing beside the now-infamous, seven-foot “Red Tape Tower,” he gestured to the thousands of pages stacked on top of the other, tied with a red ribbon and balanced on a red hand-cart.

“These are the thousands and thousands of health care regulations,” Boehner explained. “And if we want jobs, we need to get rid of this, because this is getting in the way of employers hiring workers around the country.”

Boehner’s news conference also included mention of the two major scandals that have wreaked havoc on the Obama administration this week, namely revelations that the IRS inappropriately targeted conservative nonprofits seeking tax-exempt status and that the Justice Department seized records from Associated Press phone lines.

“Nothing dissolves the bonds between people and their government like the arrogance of power here in Washington,” Boehner said. “And that’s what the American people are seeing today from the Obama administration: remarkable arrogance.

“This house will stop at nothing to get to the American people the answers that they expect,” he continued. “But the best way to repair this damage is for the Obama administration to come forward with the truth — the whole truth — so that the American people will have all the facts.”

House GOP Still Struggling for Consensus on Debt Limit

They talked about balancing the budget in 10 years, repealing Obamacare, slashing spending and overhauling the tax code.

In other words, the House Republican meeting Wednesday afternoon to brainstorm a path forward for dealing with the debt limit basically consisted of “a laundry list of everything imaginable,” in the words of Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah.

That isn’t to say it was a surprise, or a disappointment. Leading up to the GOP leadership-convened conference, lawmakers said that they expected it to be a listening session rather than a strategy meeting on what demands they should bring to the negotiating table as a condition of raising the debt ceiling.

Policy Committee Chairman James Lankford, R-Okla., said Tuesday that he didn’t anticipate consensus around a single idea, but that perhaps “instead of 10 options, maybe we’ll come out with three or four.”

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Three Tripwires for Immigration in the House

Goodlatte has jurisdiction over moving immigration related legislation through the House. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

With the Senate “gang of eight” touting its comprehensive immigration overhaul, get ready to watch the proposal’s opponents play whack-a-mole as they seek to derail legislation that appears to have a legitimate shot of going the distance.

The distance, in this case, means President Barack Obama’s signature, and whether the Senate plan can fulfill its potential rests in no small measure on the House. Can the bipartisan immigration working group of eight House members develop a politically viable comprehensive plan? And, will the chamber’s Republican majority embrace it, whether it’s moved in pieces, as is likely, or in one big package?

The answers to those crucial questions could depend on whether the House can surmount three major policy hurdles, which were foreshadowed Thursday by House Judiciary Chairman Robert W. Goodlatte, R-Va. In his statement reacting to the Senate bill, he commended the “gang of eight” for their work but was critical of key provisions of their legislation. House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul said addressing the citizenship issue for illegal immigrants looms as the chamber’s biggest challenge.

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Tax Day Q&A With Peter Roskam

(Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

As the House chief deputy majority whip with a coveted slot on the Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Peter Roskam regularly finds himself at the nexus of the political and policy issues driving debate on Capitol Hill.

The Illinois Republican’s job is to help GOP leadership line up support for all manner of legislation — and count the votes. The GOP is enjoying its second largest House majority since World War II, but rarely has Roskam’s task been an easy one. The deputy whip’s role in helping Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp shepherd comprehensive tax reform is also loaded with political uncertainty and peril.

With Monday’s deadline for Americans to file their tax returns, Goppers sat down with Roskam, 51, to discuss the House Republicans’ effort to overhaul the tax code, why Democrats keep outflanking the GOP on the issue of taxes, and whether the White House should hold its breath waiting for the GOP to agree to another tax increase.

In part one of our Q&A, the fourth-term congressman, who represents the suburban Chicago 6th District, telegraphs how the House is likely to address gun control. Roskam opens up on what he thinks of the Senate, a characterization you don’t want to miss. Look for part two of our Q&A on Tuesday, when Roskam talks immigration, national politics and the challenge of whipping a sometimes fractious House Republican conference.

CQ Roll Call: Today is tax day. Do Americans pay too much of their income to the federal treasury every year?

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Boehner Violates Hastert Rule Again

The House approved a bill Tuesday without the support of a majority of the Republican Conference, about one month after Speaker John A. Boehner sought to assure his conference that he intended to observe the “Hastert rule.”

The bill, which expands the government’s ability to buy land to protect historical battlefields at a projected cost of $50 million, passed under suspension of the rules, 283-122, with 101 Republicans supporting the bill and 122 voting against it. The Hastert rule, named for former Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., calls for GOP leadership to only allow bills to pass that have secured “a majority of the majority” of the House Republican conference.

Dan Holler, a spokesman for Heritage Action for America, which issued a “key vote” against the bill, said, “Americans of all political stripes agree something has to change, and that Republicans can lead that change if they are willing to reject status quo in Washington. Violating the Hastert Rule to pass $46 million in battlefield pork won’t get the job done, though,” he said. “Last night’s vote was a missed opportunity.”

Although the top members of House GOP leadership voted for the bill, including Budget Chairman Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, several of the lower tier members of leadership, including Oregon Rep. Greg Walden, the National Republican Congressional Committee chairman, and Oklahoma Rep. James Lankford, the Policy Committee chairman, voted “no.”

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The New GOP: Kids Before Conventions

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s latest effort at a new-look Republican Party will come in the form of a bill that would fund pediatric research in an unconventional way, the Virginian’s office announced Tuesday.

The Kids First Research Act would repurpose federal money used to finance the Democratic and Republican political conventions and publicly finance presidential campaigns and would instead use the resources to fund research into autism and other childhood diseases.

“Instead of spending millions of taxpayer dollars for presidential campaigns, these funds will be better spent helping find cures and treatments for pediatric diseases and disorders like autism,” Cantor said in a statement.

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Fix The Debt Packs Its Bags

Fix The Debt, the nonpartisan organization dedicated to addressing the country’s massive $16 trillion debt, has shifted its focus from Washington, D.C., to the states in an effort to gain traction for agenda.

Rather than spend all of its time attempting to influence lawmakers Inside the Beltway, the group has launched a new campaign aimed at building support for its campaign to push Congress to tame the federal debt by attempting to sway voters where members serve.

The effort began last week with a Nashville, Tenn., event headlined by Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn. On Wednesday, Fix The Debt hosted an Indianapolis event that was joined by Rep. Susan W. Brooks, R-Ind. Rather than targeting members, Fix The Debt plans to host events in conjunction with them as it seeks to assemble grass-roots support for a bipartisan approach to debt reduction and structural changes to budgeting that would prevent future flareups.

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The GOP’s Obsolete Talking Point

Lummis recently used a common GOP talking point on federal government borrowing that is actually outdated. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

In a column this week, Rep. Cynthia M. Lummis begins with a variation of a favorite GOP talking point.

“America’s Budget Made Simpler — The federal government now borrows $4.8 billion a day, every single day, to support its spending habit,” the Wyoming Republican wrote and tweeted.

The only problem is, that particular fact is no longer true.

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Boehner Downplays Debt Ceiling Fight as Leverage

Boehner said the GOP may use the debt ceiling increase to push for long-term entitlement changes. (Chris Maddaloni/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

Speaker John A. Boehner downplayed the importance of the debt ceiling increase in remarks to reporters Thursday, saying it might provide “some” leverage to Republicans to force spending cuts, “but I’m not going to risk the full faith and credit of the federal government.”

Rather than isolating the debt ceiling as an individual point of leverage, Republicans are hinting they’ll use it alongside the sequester cuts and the budget fight to push for long-term entitlement changes.

“We’ve made clear that to get rid of the sequester, we need cuts and reforms that will put us on a path to balance the budget over 10 years. The president is clear that he’s not going to address our entitlement crisis unless we’re willing to raise taxes. I think the tax issue’s been resolved. So at this point in time, I don’t know how we go forward,” the Ohio Republican said.

Republicans are planning an extended closed-door meeting to hammer out their strategy on the debt ceiling and other issues when they return from Easter recess. Boehner and other members of House leadership met on March 14 with a working group of influential conservatives on the issue.

Conservatives in the group are coalescing around demanding changes to entitlements for the debt ceiling increase and said the extended conference session will allow the GOP to “hash out” which reforms they will support.

Ryan’s Budget: ‘Means to an End’ Not ‘Root Canal Economics’

(Chris Maddaloni/CQ Roll Call)

When you hear congressional Republicans insist over the next few months that the American people agree with their budget priorities, keep this in mind: They know better.

House Budget Chairman Paul D. Ryan introduced his committee’s fiscal 2014 spending plan Tuesday and amid all the focus on the fact it would balance Washington’s books in 10 years, in part by repealing the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare), I was struck by a phrase the Wisconsin Republican repeated several times in his morning news conference: “means to an end.”

There is little difference between Ryan’s 2014 budget and the two previous proposals offered by the House GOP majority. But politically, the emphasis and messaging have been altered significantly. This new blueprint might appear to be about balanced budgets, tax reform and overhauling Medicare. In fact, many House Republicans will still focus on these items — it’s why they came to Congress. But what does Ryan want Americans to think about his budget? That it will make their lives better.

“We want people to know that this isn’t simply an accounting exercise, that this is an exercise in making a better country, and helping people who are in need, in getting a growing economy that produces more opportunity and upward mobility,” Ryan told CQ Roll Call after he unveiled his budget. “That’s why we’re doing what we’re doing. It’s not an accounting exercise; it’s not root canal economics, it’s pro-growth economics that gets people the kind of opportunity that they’ve always known about in America growing up.

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Interview With Speaker Boehner: The Sequester Is Here to Stay (Part II)

Boehner acknowledged he likes a glass of Merlot from time to time, but he wouldn’t elaborate. (Chris Maddaloni/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

In part two of Speaker John A. Boehner’s question-and-answer exchange with CQ Roll Call, the Ohio Republican dishes on hot-button issues such as the sequester — he suggests it’s probably here to stay — immigration changes, gun control and the fiscal 2014 budget.

But we also discussed the public’s perception of the ambitious, impatient House Republican majority that he leads and how he feels about a conservative activist community that expects much and criticizes nearly every concession the Ohioan makes to the reality that House Republicans alone do not control all levers of the federal government.

During parts one and two of our Q&A with Boehner, he was reasonably more candid given our focus on the myriad problems the Republican Party faces today and what he can do to help fix them. But in response to our final question of part two — one of a slightly personal nature, the speaker obfuscated.

Read all the way through and check it out for yourself.

CQ Roll Call: Has it been a challenge to battle President Barack Obama on the sequester when your conference was divided between those who think it’s fine and those who are concerned that it will have a negative effect on national security and military readiness? Have you concluded that the sequester is here to stay?

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Cantor Moving Legislation Aimed at Rehabing GOP Brand

(Chris Maddaloni/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

With House Republicans taking fire from every angle, including inside their party, for failing to connect their philosophical principles to voters’ everyday concerns, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is taking action.

With the blessing of the leadership team and top GOP committee chairmen, the Virginia Republican is spearheading a host of legislation that is somewhat remarkable both in what it does, and does not, attempt to address. In the traditional sense, these bills are not focused on reducing the deficit, shrinking the national debt or limiting the size and scope of government. They are focused on using Washington’s power levers to influence public policy.

That effort began last week with the introduction of the SKILLS Act, legislation aimed at improving job training. Whether House Republicans handled the roll out of the SKILLS Act to maximize the public relations aspect of the bill is another story. The introduction was drowned out by coverage of the continuing resolution, an East Coast snow storm and Sen. Rand Paul’s, R-Ky., filibuster. But Cantor made clear that there is more to come on this front. Full story