Conservatives are so outraged at John Boehner for bringing a clean debt limit increase bill to the House floor that they are mounting a coup to overthrow the Speaker of the House.
The Club For Growth got the ball rolling by proclaiming that something was wrong with the House leadership, “When we heard that House leadership was scheduling a clean debt ceiling increase, we thought it was a joke. But it’s not. Something is very wrong with House leadership, or with the Republican Party. This is not a bill that advocates of limited government should schedule or support.”
The Heritage Foundation’s Heritage Action warned House Republicans that they are scoring tonight’s vote, Rather than suspending the debt limit again, Congress should “put the budget on a path to balance in order to avoid a much worse fiscal crisis in the future—before deciding how much more to borrow.” Heritage Action opposes S. 540 and will include it as a vote on our legislative scorecard.”
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The most over the top reaction came from the Senate Conservatives Fund:
Republicans are giving up because they know that winning is impossible when their leaders are determined to lose. These leaders have telegraphed weakness to the Democrats and sabotaged conservative efforts so many times that Republicans now have no leverage. There’s only one solution.
John Boehner must be replaced as Speaker of the House.
Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)Conservatives helped Republicans win a majority in the House of Representatives, which made it possible for John Boehner to become Speaker. Unfortunately, he has chosen to ignore us and help President Obama enact his liberal agenda.
Instead of using Republican control of the House to stop bad legislation, Speaker Boehner has used it to increase spending, raise the debt limit, increase taxes, pass a bloated farm bill, and fund the implementation of Obamacare. Instead of fighting for conservative principles, Speaker Boehner has completely surrendered to the Democrats.
Unless we install a new leader who will actually go on offense, Democrats will never fear us and we will never have any leverage.
REPLACE THE SPEAKER
There are 232 Republicans in the House today and it requires 218 votes to be elected Speaker. If 15 Republicans refuse to vote for John Boehner at the beginning of the next Congress, he won’t have the votes to be re-elected and Republicans will be forced to pick someone else for the job.
Several conservative groups including For America, Tea Party Patriots, and FreedomWorks have already called for Speaker Boehner to be replaced. Now it’s time for us to join them.
In December, Boehner blasted the groups, “These groups are using our members. They are misleading their followers, they’re pushing our members in places they don’t want to be. They’ve lost all credibility. They pushed us into this fight to defund Obamacare and to shut down the government. And most of you know, our members know that wasn’t exactly the strategy I had in mind. One of these groups stood up and said ‘We never really thought it would work?'”
These conservative groups believe that Boehner has committed the unforgivable sin of actually allowing the United States to pay its bills. For this reason, Boehner must be overthrown. They would like to see Speaker Boehner replaced with someone who will have no qualms about causing a global financial crisis. However, Boehner understands something that these conservative activists don’t.
Republicans were never going to win. They were never going to win a debt ceiling showdown. Democrats were not going to budge. Boehner tried to “go on offense” with the government shutdown, and the Republican Party’s approval rating plummeted. Democrats know that they control the Senate and the White House, so they are never going to fear the House Republicans.
Despite his ineffective and weak leadership, Boehner has been the only person stopping the House Republicans from destroying themselves. The conservative groups’ behavior is a symptom of the sickness that is rampant in the Republican Party. The extremists on the right believe that bringing a bill to the House floor that allows the nation to pay its bills is an unforgivable offense. They are out of step with the country, and frankly, out of their minds.
The right wing activists destroyed the Republican Party years ago, but now they are trying to give John Boehner the boot.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
