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John Boehner Praises Colorado First Responders while Cutting Their Budget
House Speaker John Boehner praised Aurora, Colorado’s first responders today, but what he didn’t mention is House Republicans have slashed funding for emergency responders.
Here is the video:
Boehner said, “We join President Obama in sending condolences and prayers to the loved ones of those who were killed and wounded. And we all say ‘thank God’ for the police, the first responders, the doctors, and the nurses whose swift and heroic efforts saved lives.”
Speaker’s praise for the response of police is well deserved. Police were on the scene within two minutes of the first 9-1-1 calls. Their fast response saved lives, but beneath Boehner’s praise was a pile of hypocrisy.
Republicans like John Boehner and Mitt Romney are vocal supporters of the Ryan budget, which slashes billions of dollars in federal funding for local police and fire departments. In 2011, House Republicans specifically targeted federal grants for first responder funding as part of an attempted $100 billion budget cut.
In June 2012, Republican nominee Mitt Romney went on Fox News and claimed that his budget doesn’t cut first responder funding because the federal government doesn’t provide funding to first responders.
Romney said,”That’s a very strange accusation. Of course, teachers and firemen and policemen are hired at the local level and also by states. The federal government doesn’t pay for teachers, firefighters or policemen. So obviously that is completely absurd.”
As a former Governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney knows from personal experience that the federal government provides funding to states and localities for teachers, police, firefighters, and other first responders.
What Romney didn’t want to admit is that his budget plan would slash first responder funding by an estimated $12 billion per year.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell stated the Republican position, “It is not the responsibility of the federal government … to send money down to state government so that state governments don’t have to make tough decisions about balancing their budgets. We all admire police officers, firefighters and teachers. The decision about how many of those folks to have rests in the hands of state and local governments.”
When pressed neither McConnell nor his office would go on record and state that they favor cutting first responders. However, the Republican Party’s recent voting record on this issue speaks for itself.
While praising these brave men and women in public, privately a majority of Republicans support cutting federal government for first responders.
Republicans love to “thank God” for first responders. It’s too bad that they don’t want to adequately fund them.
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17 Responses to John Boehner Praises Colorado First Responders while Cutting Their Budget
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Sally
Jul. 21st, 2012 at 12:52 pm
The response in Aurora was incredible. As far as the GOP, you people are crazy and the biggest bunch of liars I have ever seen. Do you guys take lessons in lying? Is that was Bachmann’s tea caucus ‘classes’ were about? Here are the talking points, we are never wrong. This is disgusting to me as a citizen. The GOP is taking us apart, job by job, and creating an aristocracy for the white male. When people start paying attention to this election, I pray they think about which party is for the people and jobs, and which party is for themselves.
A Walkaway
Jul. 21st, 2012 at 1:12 pm
This is the real problem… the sort of thing that needs to be addressed.
This sort of blind hypocrisy only feeds violence and encourages the unstable. It hurts the innocent and empowers the evil.
(Sigh)… I think I should be more disgusted, but I find that I’m not. I guess I’m getting used to the level of hypocrisy and greed being shown, and that being the case, I wouldn’t be surprised if they upped that level again.
Reynardine
Jul. 21st, 2012 at 1:13 pm
Aristocracy for th *rich* white male. Other white males might be their enforcers or overseers if they think right- well, Right- but the idea is that the rest of us exist in the hands of, to quote some Latin poet, a malevolent Jupiter and the most predacious members of their own species.
buckeyewill
Jul. 21st, 2012 at 1:51 pm
Isn’t sad that Republicans dump the votes of the police and fire fighters for $$$$ from the Koch Brothers???
May
Jul. 21st, 2012 at 1:55 pm
“Republicans love to ‘thank God’ for first responders. It’s too bad that they don’t want to adequately fund them.”
Maybe they can ask God to pay for the first responders…
lbarnett
Jul. 21st, 2012 at 2:46 pm
It takes a calloused heart to be able to lie with such sincerity and ease.That, my friends,
is what constitutes a shameless politician.
Anne
Jul. 21st, 2012 at 2:53 pm
Some of these very first responders whose jobs they cut funding for will vote for Romney and other Republicans in a heartbeat. It’s similar to the situation of soldiers whose courage in war they praise endlessly but do nothing for when they come back from places like Vietnam, Iraq, or Afghanistan wounded in body and spirit and having to readjust to civilian life in spite of their traumas.
Paws
Jul. 21st, 2012 at 3:56 pm
Well, the GOP certainly never met a hypocritical stance on an issue that it didn’t like. They’ve raised lying and hypocrisy to an art form and quite frankly, I don’t understand why anyone who is not white and rich and male votes for them. They do not care about ordinary Americans.
John
Jul. 21st, 2012 at 6:33 pm
This is why i will never vote republican at any level for any reason in the foreseeable future.
The modern republican party is the greatest threat the United States has ever faced.
Hopefully they will shed all of this DERP and go back to the party of Teddy and Eisenhower. SIGH, i can dream.
FireLikeIYA
Jul. 21st, 2012 at 9:58 pm
Another GOP bashing story. What happened to unbiased news reporting? It makes you wonder who owns the media… Oh yeah, big business and the 1%.
majii
Jul. 21st, 2012 at 10:28 pm
Telling the truth about someone or a political party is not bashing. I think many of the problems we have with our government today is a direct result of politicians lying to the American people. Boehner and the republicans initially voted against the bill that would help the 911 first responders. They eventually voted for the bill after it became widely known that they refused to do it. All during the debates on the bill, they were telling their supporters that they were in favor of it, but in Congress, they consistently voted against it until December 2010. They’ve done the same thing with bills that would create jobs. Last week they filibustered a bill that would promote insourcing. If anyone asks them, in public, they’ll say jobs need to be returned to the U.S., but they’ll do the opposite in Congress. The truth is the truth and has no political affiliation, and the truth is that the Ryan Budget CUTS funding for first responders. A “head in the sand” method for electing public officials usually ends in disaster. The founders intended that Americans be well-informed about our government and its politicians in order that we elect politicians who work in the best interest of ourselves and our nation, and denying facts doesn’t achieve their goals.
SVR
Jul. 21st, 2012 at 10:53 pm
It never stops for these sick bastards does it?
Michael Case
Jul. 21st, 2012 at 11:06 pm
Two words…Republicans suck
Joseph Hertzlinger
Jul. 22nd, 2012 at 12:51 am
Why do people who only affect a small locality need Federal subsidies? Wouldn’t it make more sense for them to be paid by people better able to judge their necessity and effectiveness? Local government is for locals.
Jason Easley
Jul. 22nd, 2012 at 1:29 am
Joseph,
Your premise is completely faulty when it comes to first responders. The reality is that first responders aren’t just local. When there is a major criminal act or disaster, first responders come from neighboring cities, towns, and states. Do you think all of the first responders after Hurricane Katrina came just from the city of New Orleans? What about wildfires, or terrorist attacks like 9/11? First responders may be based in individual places, but they form a national network. When a disaster strikes first responders don’t say it didn’t happen in my town, so I am going to ignore it. These people risk their lives to help others no matter where they live.
This is why federal funding is needed. Disasters and terrorist acts don’t respect the boundaries drawn on a map. Your political argument simply doesn’t match the real world reality on the ground.
Gene Richardson
Jul. 22nd, 2012 at 8:35 am
Joseph, there’s the perfect example. Why is the rest of the country expected to fund responders for people that don’t know any better than to live there. They want to live in that piece of crap area along the coast fine but don’t expect me to bail them out every time they have a problem.
Rudy Gonzales
Jul. 22nd, 2012 at 11:55 am
John Boehner is cowing down to the fringe in an effort to appease and placate to them. This fringe calls them selves the TEA party. It includes Bachmann, Cruz, Rubio and a multitude of others who adhere to the espouses of this movement. TEA party extremes say they believe in limited government, but push or allow government imposed Sonogram/Ultrasound on women. TEA party extremes say they believe in Free speech, but interrupt loudly at any meeting and have disrupted meetings in the past. TEA party extremes say they believe in the 2nd amendment while taking loaded guns openly displayed to gatherings. TEA party extremes say they believe in our military, but offer nor retort to people like Jim DeMint of South Carolina, who put a hold on legislation was to be voted on for medical help or assistance to women and children as well as military personnel of Marine Base Camp Lejeune which had their water system contaminated with trichloroethylene, tetrachloroethylene, benzene and vinyl chloride. TEA party extremes say they believe in secure borders and support extremist like the governor and legislature of Arizona who stepped across the line on immigrant legislation issues. TEA party extremes say they believe in our country, but conspire to execute their fringed views onto the masses without regard to freedoms of others. TEA party extremes say they believe in restricting voter rights going against federal laws. TEA party extremes say they believe Muslims should have no rights in America and have been totally critical of those who do. TEA party extremes say they believe in free speech but would disallow Mosques built in America. TEA party extremes are bigots, racist and demigods steeped in their own private world much like Joseph McCarthy. If you are tired of confrontational non-governing, in-effective representation, may I recommend voting for those who do not use the (R), because they just might be (T) in disguise.