commentaries

They re-elected Boehner because there is literally no one else that can do the job. Re-elect an incompetent because the others are more incompetent. Welcome to the Republican Party of 2013.

He only has tears for events that affect him. Does not have any tears for the rest of America.

Nobody else wanted the job. Reelected by default.

dakmarknet - I agree that there is likely no one who could have performed this job well regarding the "fiscal cliff," - but not due to incompetence. Obama had the upper hand all along regarding tax rates. However, now that rates are set, and they are not temporary any more, the Republican-led House has a real opportunity to lead. They may still blow their chance, but I think we'll now see the Republicans standing firm on spending cuts. The media can only go so far in defending the current deficit spending. If Obama continues to avoid his "balanced" approach and pushes to spend even more he may be shocked to see even the Senate in Republican hands in two years.

my4cents - agreed! Boehner is far from incompetent. His job of leading the House GOP is simply very difficult. However, tax rates are only set regarding the budget deal. Republicans believe they now have leverage in the debt ceiling talks, but most likely everything will be re-negotiable at that point.

bik4u62 - Yes, everything is now negotiable. However, Obama and the Democrats can no longer threaten to do nothing and then blame Republicans for increasing taxes for everyone. Doing nothing right now should work in favor of the Republicans. They can now pass a budget that reduces spending in the very "balanced" way that Obama campaigned on. The one area where the Republicans are likely to hurt themselves is that they may not include any cuts to defense. They need to be somewhat balanced there as well. Cut more in domestic spending, but if they also include cuts to defense they will win the popularity contest.

Of course his task was impossible-->cleaning up after the extraordinary mess left by the previous Speaker (Pelosi). Pelosi's, 2007-2010, 4 year run broke all records for political incompetence => millions of job lost, major recession, funded 2 war surges, trillions in new debt, banking scandals, a still choking healthcare law etc etc. It will get far uglier, as this has been relatively painless thus far for 85% of Americans. Get ready, the economic suffering will accelerate..........

So, when the debt ceiling rolls around, what is Boehner going to say? "We are not going to vote for it until we get what we want?" You can bet he won't add "and we don't care if the nation goes bankrupt." And with that, what do you think Obama should do or the democrats? I will tell you what will happen. The senate will sponsor their own bill to raise the debt limit and it will pass by partisan vote. The republican members of the house will then have some real serious thinking to do, and how many of them are going to jump ship? You decide.

comment229***the senate already sponsered a bill the sandy bill and it had more pork in it than a pig farm and you think they can come up with anything better.

Too bad he's a stooge for the tea pubs.