Boehner Seems Reasonable.....for about 15 minutes

Speaker of the House John Boehner is not one of my favorite people, and not because I hate Orangemen. In fact, I have a lot of good friends who went to Syracuse. I do, however, have a dislike for lying scum who take big payoffs from lobbyists and help the rich at the expense of the health of the country. So I was shocked that I actually had some respect for this particular orange man for about 3.5 minutes this morning.

On the front page of the WSJ today is a story about Boehner's plans to tackle the costs of Social Security and Medicare. Now, anyone who understands the long-term fiscal trouble our country is in knows we have to do something about these programs (they also know that taxes will also have to be raised, the military budget cut, and our ridiculous health care costs addressed, which Boehner did not address). So, good for him. I was even more encouraged by this quote in the story:

"I offered to the president we could lock arms and walk out and begin the conversation about the size of the problem," Mr. Boehner said, adding that Mr. Obama responded "positively."

Wow, work with the opposition to solve a real problem, the mention of which is loaded with political danger! Then I got to this part of the story:

Mr. Boehner made it clear the Republicans are not themselves offering a detailed plan anytime soon. Rather, the budget is likely to contain cost containment goals, but no specific ideas on how to achieve them.

And there we go, back to the bullshit! Cost containment goals but no specifics? Just the same old bullshit from an old bullshitter. We are going to say we have goals to fix the problem, but leave the specifics up to someone in the future after we have retired. So, in fact Boehner has proposed nothing of significance.

I do wonder why he would say this. Proposing cuts to seniors' benefits is the third rail of politics, and he just put his foot on it. And he did it without even a real plan that would do anything. So, they way I see it, he has given the Democrats a club to beat the GOP over the head with....cuts to social security....that will heavily influence the group of people most likely to vote, and most easily frightened. Even the Democrats are smart enough to figure out what a gift he just gave them. And he did it without even a real plan that would benefit the country, or even the intent of developing one. Is he an idiot?

As if to answer the "is he an idiot?" question, he announces today that he is mounting a defense of the indefensible and unconstitutional "Defense of Marriage Act", which should have been called the "Discrimination against people who make us uncomfortable act". Go ahead orange dude, take it to the Supreme Court and try to explain how that law doesn't violate the 14th Amendment.

Nice work Mr. Speaker. You were off my "complete asshole" list for 3.5 minutes. Now, you are up there just a few rungs under Sarah Palin.