After His Failed Sequester Blame Game, Boehner Says the President Lacks Guts

Last updated on February 13th, 2013 at 10:31 pm

Speaker Boehner is very upset about President Obama’s “liberal agenda” (read: popularity with the American public).

The Republican from Ohio is also so nervous about the upcoming sequester that he tried once again to blame the President for the sequester, even though his plan to launch “Obamasequester” failed miserably.

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With the strained hope of selling a lemon to a dubious press, Boehner accused Obama of failing to find agreement with Republicans because he lacks “courage” and “guts”. Yes, it couldn’t be that Republicans are impossible to deal with these days, and that the tanking of their approval ratings leave them little doubt that the American public is fully aware of their failures.

Oh, no. Obama lacks the courage to do what it takes, says Boehner. “To do the kind of heavy lifting that needs to be done, I don’t think he’s got the guts to go do it. He doesn’t have the courage to take on the liberal side of his own party. I’m sorry but it’s just clear as a bell to me.”

We call this projection. The poor man can’t admit that it’s he who can’t take on the Tea Party. Boehner’s attempts to deal with the President were undermined not by Obama, but by his own party in a humiliating defeat that left most pundits wondering why Obama would waste time dealing with Boehner, when the Speaker has no sway with his own party, let alone the House. Former Speaker Pelosi has had to step into the Boehner leadership void on numerous occasions.

It’s like the Speaker is looking into a very dim, dirty mirror, and the scary specter of defense cuts stares him down from behind the transparent stains of the Republican Party’s talking points.

While blaming Obama for the sequester, Boehner dug his heels in and refused to compromise with the Democrats. Boehner’s deflections are taking on a shrill aura. He claimed that Democrats got their tax revenue now it’s Republicans turn. Only, Republicans got trillions in cuts already from the President, so technically, if I can stop the game for a second, it’s Boehner’s turn to give a little. Also, we wouldn’t even be here were it not for John Boehner’s failure to manage his House.

“I’ve tried repeatedly to come to agreement with the president. Every time I’ve gotten burned,” said Boehner. Insert Tea Party instead of President, and the light of truth will begin to dawn.

What Republicans refuse to discuss is the fact that their debt ceiling stunt cost us 18.9 billion dollars — a fact that doesn’t lend a lot of credence to their “spending” mantra.

Since leaders from both parties agreed to the sequester as a part of the Budget Control Act in 2011, and the House and Senate both voted to pass it, including Speaker Boehner, the Republicans’ attempt to blame the President are ill-conceived at best.

Additionally, John Boehner admitted that he walked away from the Grand Bargain, a deal that only came about because his tea party caucus refused to raise the debt ceiling until they got what they wanted. In response to that failure, lawmakers came up with the sequester, which hits defense spending hard (a nudge to Republicans to force them to finally come up with a solution other than ALL THEIR WAY OR NOTHING).

Back then, Boehner was crowing the press about how he got 98% of what he wanted and he walked away from the President. Now he’s trying to rewrite history, but who can blame him. Boehner can hardly go tell the defense industry that he’s super duper sorry, but he can’t control his tea caucus. Meanwhile, the pressure is on Boehner from the defense industry to not let the sequester happen. But Boehner claims he’s unwilling to make the compromise needed (revenue) to avoid the sequester. Rock, hard place, tea.

Tough times for the Speaker. No matter how many times Republicans try to blame Obama for this, even NBC news sees through it. It’s just not happening.

Obamaquester never got off the ground, and even Eric Cantor’s smugness couldn’t save Humpty Dumpty last Sunday. Now, all they have left is name-calling on the preschool playground. “It’s his fault, he started it! He doesn’t have any guts!” So says the party that cannot face its paymasters given the result of their irresponsible deployment of weapons of economic destruction.

Expect the whine factor to reach Defcon 5 tonight, as the President is expected to use the State of the Union address to argue against automatic spending cuts and for more revenue. You’ll know how desperate Republicans are by the number of times they try to deploy the word “liberal” as if it’s the political bomb it used to be. Yes, they’re slow, but what do you expect from people who get their news from Fox and still don’t understand why they shouldn’t be skewing polls for the imaginary majority of right leaning Americans.

The Party that lacks the courage to admit that revenue is a rather important part of a balanced budget points their fingers outward once again.

Sarah Jones

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Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.

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