Posted on 10/01/2010 1:13:34 PM PDT by jazusamo
Complete title: Boehner: The U.S. House is in a 'State of Emergency' and is No Longer Able to Act on Will of the People
Washington (CNSNews.com) – House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Thursday that the House of Representatives is in “a state of emergency” due to rules that discourage debate and foster corruption.
In a policy speech at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., Boehner observed that the House is no longer able to follow the will of the American people.
“The House finds itself in a state of emergency,” Boehner said. “The institution does not function, does not deliberate, and seems incapable of acting on the will of the American people.”
The ten-term Ohio congressman, whom poll-watchers say could be poised to take over as Speaker of the House next session, laid out an agenda for reforming the House after what he called the “collapse” of the institution in the past weeks and months.
“Just look at how the 111th Congress is not so much concluding as much as it has collapsed,” he said. “Instead of tallying up a final flurry of legislative output, observers and constituents are asking, ‘What went wrong?’”
Boehner said a chief failing of this Congress, which narrowly voted to adjourn on Wednesday, was the fact that congressmen were heading home to campaign without providing any certainty about the Bush tax cuts, which are set to expire at the end of the year.
“This week we had, in my view, an obligation to bring both parties together and stop massive tax increases scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1 -- increases that we’ve seen coming now for two year,” Boehner told reporters. “Even with the existence of a clear, bipartisan majority and the support of the American people, we could not get a single up-or-down vote. It’s a sad but not altogether surprising finale to this Congress, and the latest in a long string of congressional sessions that have frayed the fragile bonds of trust between the American people and their elected representatives.
Voters should be upset with the current Congress, Boehner added.
“Americans have every right to be fed up, and trust me, they are,” he said. “But what I won’t accept and what I refuse to accept is that we can simply walk away and let our government continue to drift.”
The top House Republican listed a number of proposals that he said would help the body produce better legislation under a more transparent process, lamenting that under the current Nancy Pelosi-led Congress, only a few people had a hand in crafting bills and the other 400 members “sat on the sidelines.”
“From the floor of the House to the committee level, the integrity of the House has been compromised. The battle of ideas, the very lifeblood of the House, is virtually nonexistent.”
Boehner proposed a “Cut As You Go” -- or CUTGO – rule, which would require members to cut or shrink a government program in the same bill that they propose any new benefit or program. He also porposed re-focusing committees back onto their constitutional role overseeing the Executive Branch and again allowing bills to be debated under the “open rule” system -- meaning that any member is allowed to submit germane amendments for consideration.
Boehner said the current House, led by Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), has not allowed any bills under this process.
“This is the first Congress in our history that has not allowed one bill to come to the floor under an open rule. The current freshman class has served almost their entire term without ever having the chance to debate a bill under an open process in the House,” Boehner said.
For example, the health-care reform bill was largely crafted by House leadership and then sent to the Rules Committee, which set strict limitations on the length and breadth of debate -- a process Boehner called “ugly.”
“I’ve been here nearly 20 years,” Boehner said of his time in Congress. “I’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly; and lately, there’s been a lot of ugly.”
The House on Wednesday narrowly voted (210-209) to adjourn until after the election, after considering dozens of bills under its “suspension” calendar – meaning that the normal rules of the House were suspended, debate was limited to 40 minutes, no amendments were allowed and a two-thirds majority was required to pass a bill.
Congress will not reconvene until after the midterm elections on Nov. 2, when every member of the House is up for reelection.
It is true. The House has 2-yr terms, all of them. Same time.
/s tag ommitted ;)
When Carter was president I honestly believed I’d never see a worse president or our country in worse shape when he left, I was wrong.
First woman speaker.... first black president.... They have both set us back to the 1960s 1860s.
Fixed. A modern-day Fort Sumter is upon us ...
IN A NUTSHELL:
Communist Goals (1963)
Documention below
Congressional Record—Appendix, pp. A34-A35
January 10, 1963
Current Communist Goals
EXTENSION OF REMARKS OF HON. A. S. HERLONG, JR. OF FLORIDA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Thursday, January 10, 1963
Mr. HERLONG. Mr. Speaker, Mrs. Patricia Nordman of De Land, Fla., is an ardent and articulate opponent of communism, and until recently published the De Land Courier, which she dedicated to the purpose of alerting the public to the dangers of communism in America.
At Mrs. Nordman’s request, I include in the RECORD, under unanimous consent, the following “Current Communist Goals,” which she identifies as an excerpt from “The Naked Communist,” by Cleon Skousen:
[From “The Naked Communist,” by Cleon Skousen]
CURRENT COMMUNIST GOALS
1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament [by] the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev’s promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.
9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.
14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers’ associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to “eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.”
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. “Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art.”
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them “censorship” and a violation of free speech and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as “normal, natural, healthy.”
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with “social” religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a “religious crutch.”
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of “separation of church and state.”
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the “common man.”
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the “big picture.” Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture—education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use [”]united force[”] to solve economic, political or social problems.
43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.
45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction [over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction] over nations and individuals alike.
Then why are we paying them?
Well, stop doing that. I can’t tell when you’re joking. /s
bttt
BUMP!
Carter looks good next to this guy, and he was an absolute disaster. We haven’t seen anything yet.
FINALLY. Why do we always wait until push comes to shove to talk tough? Some lessons can be learned from Palladino.
I’m in complete agreement with you. If the republicans take control and don’t take some drastic measures we’re in for it.
They should take a simple majority vote on all bills being passed or failed on a simple majority vote. In other words, get rid of all the damned rules that have been put in place since the first congress.
And they should also pass a rule that all congress people and their staffs’ salaries and expensed be paid by the state they represent.
Correct, we now have so many laws across all jurisdictions that we could weigh them instead of enumerating them.
Problem with lawmakers, they got nothing better to do than pass laws to make us miserable.
No new laws until we junk a bunch of them from prior sessions.
Someone make a business card that says:
Have gun. Will travel to Albany.
Wire Palladino.
I was just re-reading this today. Scary. Unfortunately for us, Goldwater, Birch, and McCarthy were correct.
Be still my beating heart, McCain wants to secure the borders and Boehner is concerned with the will of the people.
Don't you mean HISTRIONIC? :)
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