{"id":4707,"date":"2011-04-29T02:49:28","date_gmt":"2011-04-29T09:49:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=4707"},"modified":"2011-04-29T09:48:06","modified_gmt":"2011-04-29T16:48:06","slug":"boehner-blew-it-big","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/04\/29\/boehner-blew-it-big\/","title":{"rendered":"Boehner Blew It Big!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m not sure if he was distracted, thinking about that missed putt on the 16th, or perhaps had bending the elbow a few times too many, but Speaker John Boehner (R-BP) goofed while trying to evade the truth, so it did not come out as intended.\u00a0 In the process, he opened a hornets\u2019 nest sure, not only to embarrass him and his fellow Republicans, but also, to hold them up as the corporate sycophants they are.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\"BonerOrange\"Earlier this week, spin doctors for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) scrambled to do damage control following his comments Monday to ABC News advocating cuts to Big Oil subsidies<\/a> <\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n

In an interview with ABC News\u2019 Jonathan Karl, Boehner had this to say:<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s certainly something we should be looking at<\/strong>. We\u2019re in a time when the federal government\u2019s short on revenues. They ought to be paying their fair share<\/strong>\u2026Everybody wants to go after the oil companies and frankly, they\u2019ve got some part of this to blame.<\/span><\/p>\n

A Boehner spokesman quickly characterized<\/a> his boss\u2019s comments as an attempt to avoid a trap sprung by ABC\u2019s Karl:<\/span><\/p>\n

The Speaker made clear in the interview that raising taxes was a non-starter<\/strong>, and he\u2019s told the president that. He simply wasn\u2019t going to take the bait and fall into the trap of defending \u2018Big Oil\u2019 companies<\/strong>. Boehner believes, as he stated in the interview, that expanding American energy production will help lower gas prices and create more American jobs. We\u2019ll look at any reasonable policy that lowers gas prices. Unfortunately, what the president has suggested so far would simply raise taxes and increase the price at the pump.<\/span><\/p>\n

The dial-back didn\u2019t stop President Obama from firing off an arch letter to Boehner<\/a>, writing that he \u201cwas heartened that Speaker Boehner yesterday expressed openness to eliminating these tax subsidies for the oil and gas industry<\/strong>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has said that, after Boehner\u2019s comments opened a crack in the Republicans\u2019 armor, Democrats will waste no time in pursuing legislation to end the subsidies<\/strong>. In a Wednesday press conference<\/a>, he said that his party will push consideration of President Obama\u2019s proposal to repeal Big Oil tax breaks as early as next week. \u201cThere\u2019s no necessity for these subsidies,\u201d he said. \u201cThe companies have broken all records for profits.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Oil industry insiders have lashed out at the Democrats\u2019 attempt to end oil subsidies as job killers. Reuters reports<\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a tired old argument we\u2019ve been hearing for two years now. If the president were serious about job creation, he would be working with us to develop American oil and gas by American workers for American consumers,\u201d the American Petroleum Institute\u2019s chief economist John Felmy said.<\/span><\/p>\n

And yet, if first quarter trends continue through the rest of the year, Exxon alone stands to net ten times as much in profits as the entire industry receives in subsidies<\/strong>\u2026 [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Washington Independent<\/a>><\/p>\n

In this brief clip, Rachel Maddow hammers home why the subsidies are so absurd.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/span><\/p>\n

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news<\/a>, world news<\/a>, and news about the economy<\/a><\/p>\n

Now, don\u2019t get your hopes up.\u00a0 If you think there is any way in hell that the GOBP will allow Big Oil to pay a penny more of their share, call me.\u00a0 I\u2019m selling drilling permits for oil on the moon.\u00a0 Seriously, as long as Republicans have a majority in the House and\/or enough Senators to mount a filibuster, such efforts are futile, except that forcing votes on them paints the Republican Party truthfully.\u00a0 They represent criminal corporations and the richest 1%, not you.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m not sure if he was distracted, thinking about that missed putt on the 16th, or perhaps had bending the elbow a few times too many, but Speaker John Boehner (R-BP) goofed while trying to evade the truth, so it did not come out as intended.\u00a0 In the process, he opened a hornets\u2019 nest sure, […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4707\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}