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Economy

Boehner Revives Statistic About Millionaires That His Spokesman Already Admitted Isn’t True

By Pat Garofalo on May 31, 2012 at 3:10 pm

During a press conference today, Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) reacted to Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) suggestion that the Bush tax cuts only be extended for those making less than $1 million by saying that such a move would hurt small businesses and therefore job creation. In fact, he claimed that half of those making more than $1 million annually are small business people:

“I believe that raising taxes at this point in our recovery is a big mistake,” Boehner said at a Capitol press conference when asked about Pelosi’s letter…“Even under Ms. Pelosi’s argument, half of those who would get this higher tax are small-business people that are sub-Chapter S or other types of pass-through entities,” Boehner said. “At a time when we are trying to help small businesses create jobs, this proposal would kill jobs.”

This statistic is simply not true. In fact, it’s false according to Boehner’s spokesman Michael Steel. When Boehner made the same claim regarding millionaires and small businesses last year, FactCheck.org contacted Boehner’s office, and Steel “quickly admitted that the speaker was mistaken.”

Under a reasonable definition of small businesses, just 13 percent of millionaires can be considered small business owners. And just 0.5 percent of the nation’s small business owners cross that income threshold, making them the absolute top of the income scale.

Plus, at the end of the day, even if a millionaire makes his millions via a business that is considered small, the income tax is levied on take-home pay, not business profits. Anyone taking home $1 million annually should be taxed like a millionaire.

Health

Republicans Will Likely Renege On Their Pledge To ‘Replace’ Obamacare

By Amanda Peterson Beadle on May 17, 2012 at 5:56 pm

Congressional Republicans have promised to “repeal and replace” President Obama’s health care reform law, but they still have not agreed on what that should look like. Today, Speaker John Boehner said every part of Obamacare needs to be removed:

“We voted to fully repeal the president’s healthcare law as one of our first acts as a new House majority, and our plan remains to repeal the law in its entirety,” Boehner said to reporters. “Anything short of that is unacceptable.”

But Republicans have yet to offer a viable alternative that would that would fill the void left by the law and provide coverage to the 30 million Americans who would lose insurance without Obamacare. Politico reported this morning that GOP leaders have quietly begun to float a piecemeal plan that may provide limited insurance coverage to a small portion of the uninsured. Republicans have said they would preserve the most popular provisions, like allowing young adults to stay on their parents’ health insurance until age 26, without the individual mandate that helps pay for the regulations.

But the GOP’s internal disagreement and unwillingness to offer a unified comprehensive plan suggests that they consider health care a low legislative priority. For instance, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) — the GOP’s spokesman on economic issues — told the Washington Examiner on Thursday that the party will “articulate our vision” to replace the law, but wouldn’t necessarily offer a legislative solution.

This approach contrasts sharply from Republican’s pledge to “replace” reform as soon as it became law in 2010. Boehner promised in 2010 to “replace it with common-sense reforms,” and Ryan said in a 2011 speech that Republicans can’t stop at simply repealing the law and “have a responsibility to fix the broken network of government policies that have made such a mess of health care.”

But now that their strategy looks like nothing more than tossing out a law that helps expand access to health insurance while controlling costs, Republicans are telling the uninsured and those worried about rising health care costs that they are not concerned about fixing their problems.

Justice

Wasserman Schultz Says Politicization Of Violence Against Women Act Was A ‘Directive From John Boehner’

By Annie-Rose Strasser on May 16, 2012 at 4:25 pm

The House is set to vote today on a watered-down version of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) that the President has threatened to veto for its lack of coverage, particularly in regards to undocumented people, native women, and the LGBT community.

But while Republicans have accused the Democrats of playing politics with women’s domestic safety, the opposite may actually be true.

In a sit-down with bloggers on Capitol Hill today, DNC Chair and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) told reporters that she’d heard House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) actually ordered his caucus to move VAWA as far to the right as possible:

RYAN GRIM of the Huffington Post: I’d heard that the Republican leadership wasn’t very happy with the committee for going how far right they went with this. Had you heard anything that–

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Actually, I’d heard that this was a direct directive from John Boehner himself. So…

GRIM: What’s the thinking in that?

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: You know, I think their obsession with opposing immigration at every possible turn has permeated every single possible bill, including things that are normally as mom and apple pie as reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act.

VAWA has been passed and reauthorized twice with strong bipartisan support. Each reauthorization has expanded the bill and added new provisions. This year, the Senate passed VAWA in a 68 to 31 vote, after some debate, with the added provisions intact to protect LGBT, undocumented, and Native people. The House version of VAWA does not include these protections.

And while Republicans may have rectified the portion of their original bill that violated the confidentiality of victims by adding a manager’s amendment, the bill still seriously weakens the visa program extended to undocumented victims of domestic abuse, so that they are put in a position of fear in reporting assault.

Economy

Boehner Threatens To Take The Debt Limit Hostage Again

By Pat Garofalo on May 15, 2012 at 10:40 am

Last August, the nation narrowly avoided hitting its debt limit thanks to a last minute deal cut by Congress. House Republicans had threatened to push the country into a default unless Democrats agreed to spending cuts that were larger than the amount of the debt limit increase.

The episode is widely regarded as an embarrassment for good governance and a blow for the economy. Standard & Poor’s, even with the deal, downgraded America’s credit rating, citing the GOP’s complete intransigence regarding revenue increases. But it seems Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) is ready to write the sequel, as he will reportedly demand today that the next increase in the debt limit follow the same GOP criteria:

In a speech Tuesday, House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) plans to address the issue of national debt, which will once again be nearing its legal limit in January, just as the tax hikes and spending cuts are due to hit.

According to advance remarks provided to The Post, Boehner will insist that any increase in the debt limit be accompanied by spending “cuts and reforms greater than the debt limit increase” — the same demand that pushed the Treasury to the brink of default during last summer’s debt-limit standoff.

According to the Economic Policy Institute, the cuts demanded by the GOP in exchange for raising the debt limit will cost the economy 1.8 million jobs this year. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner already pushed back on Boehner’s remarks, saying, “this commitment to meet the obligations of the nation, this commitment to protect the creditworthiness of the country, is a fundamental commitment that you can never call into question or violate.”

LGBT

Memo To GOP: Marriage Equality Boosts The Economy

By Guest Blogger on May 10, 2012 at 1:10 pm

Republicans have responded to President Obama’s public endorsement of marriage equality by passing an amendment hours later reinforcing the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), and including two more anti-LGBT amendments in a defense bill.

Some members of the party, however, just want to ignore the issue altogether. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), who has supported using taxpayer funds to defend DOMA, dismissed the focus on marriage equality as a distraction from important concerns like jobs and the economy:

The speaker suggested the reignited debate over gay marriage is a distraction to other legislative business on Capitol Hill, especially considering the state of the economy.

“Republicans here on Capitol Hill are focused in on the economy,” he said. “The American people are still asking the question, ‘Where are the jobs?’ and our focus is going to continue to be on the economy like it has been for the last year and a half.”

But if jobs and the economy are the Speaker’s focus, he might be pleased to learn that legalizing same-sex marriage has had a strong positive impact on state and local economies, brought in money for tourism, lodging and wedding planning, and offered much-needed relief to state budgets:

– MASSACHUSETTS: A 2009 study found that “marriages have had a positive economic effect on Massachusetts -– likely providing a boost of over $100 million to the state economy.” “Same-sex couples’ weddings injected significant spending into the Massachusetts economy and brought out-of-state guests to the state, whose spending also added to the economic boost,” it concluded.

– IOWA: Last year, a study found that same-sex marriages brought as much as $13 million in new spending to Iowa in the year since the state Supreme Court overturned a ban.

– MARYLAND: A report last month from the Maryland Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce found that the recently passed marriage equality law could boost the state’s economy by $90 million a year if it survives a November referendum.

– ILLINOIS: In March, a study from the Williams Institute predicted that legalizing marriage equality would boost Illinois’ economy by between $39 and $72 million over three years, and bring in as much as $8 million in tax revenue.

– NEW JERSEY: The Williams Institute also found that legalizing marriage equality in New Jersey could add $119 million to the state’s economy over three years, along with $8 million in tax revenue.

– RHODE ISLAND: One state that has not legalized same-sex marriage, Rhode Island, could be losing as much as $8 million a year. Why? Because same-sex couples simply travel to Massachusetts to get married. Rhode Island recognizes same-sex marriages from out of state but only allows civil unions within its borders.

– NATIONALLY: A CBO report found that repealing DOMA could actually improve the federal budget by just under $1 billion in each of the next ten years, but only if marriage equality was legal in all fifty states and recognized by the federal government.

-Zachary Bernstein

LGBT

Republicans Intervene To Defend Discriminatory Treatment Of Gay And Lesbian Servicemembers

By Igor Volsky on May 2, 2012 at 10:04 am

As news broke that Richard Grenell — the openly-gay conservative foreign policy spokesperson hired by Mitt Romney — had resigned following pressure from right-wing activists, word came down that the House Republicans have intervened to defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and related laws in McLaughlin v. United States, a challenge brought by eight gay and lesbian servicemembers, veterans and their spouses who allege they face discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation.

That lawsuit claims that Maj. Shannon McLaughlin of the Massachusetts National Guard and her partner Casey are denied benefits that similarly situated opposite-sex couples enjoy as a result of the 1996 law, which “violates constitutional equal protection guarantees,” “the Tenth Amendment and constitutional principles of federalism.” DOMA prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-sex couples.

The House Republican leadership — in the form of the The House Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group — agreed to defend the discriminatory treatment after Obama administration announced that it will not argue on behalf laws that prevent married same-sex couples from obtaining military benefits. Metro Weekly’s Chris Geidner has more:

The move is similar to BLAG’s action in a similar case brought by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Cooper-Harris v. United States, in which equal veterans benefits are being sought. BLAG, which is controlled by the House Republican leadership, has intervened in several DOMA challenges to defend the 1996 law after the Obama administration stopped defending the federal definition of marriage in February 2011, when Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder concluded the law was unconstitutional.

In a statement today, SLDN executive director Aubrey Sarvis said, “Speaker Boehner’s request to defend this case in the wake of the ongoing harm done to military families by these discriminatory laws is reprehensible and callous.”

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) office immediately condemned the action, noting, “The men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces risk their lives for the country they love and do not deserve to face prejudice, especially from our nation’s elected leaders, when they return home. Speaker Boehner should grant the request of Leader Pelosi and Whip Hoyer for a vote of the BLAG on the expanded DOMA defense efforts regarding veterans cases and allow the Committee on House Administration and the Ethics Committee to review any new contracts or additional expenditures of taxpayer funds.”

This is the 12th case in which Boehner has intervened and it comes as the head of his party fails to stand up to the anti-gay wing of the conservative movement.

Health

Boehner Falsely Claims Prevention Fund Has Not Aided Women’s Health

By Josh Israel on Apr 30, 2012 at 8:30 am

John Boehner

(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

This Sunday, during an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union with Candy Crowley, Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) was asked about the House Republicans’ plan to avoid an increase in student loan interest rates by taking money from a health care fund that particularly benefits women. The Prevention and Public Health Fund, created by the Affordable Care Act, provides states and communities with funds for “promoting wellness, preventing disease, and protecting against public health emergencies.”

But Boehner, noting that the Obama administration had earlier agreed to take some money out of the account to pay for the payroll tax cut extension, claimed that none of the money in the account benefits women. He told Crowley:

CROWLEY: We have [House Democratic Leader] Nancy Pelosi out there saying, well, they want to protect the big oil companies because they want to pay for the student loan interest rates by closing loopholes in the oil industry and we want to protect women’s health. We want to prevent breast cancer and cervical cancer and that’s what this fund is for.

BOEHNER: That is just nonsense. There’s no women’s health issue here.

CROWLEY: It’s a preventive fund, isn’t it?

BOEHNER: I’ll guarantee you they’ve not spent a dime out of this fund dealing with anything to do with women’s health.

Watch the video:

Boehner’s statement is absolutely false. The fund has already been used to provide health care workforce development and public health initiatives to combat diseases like obesity, diabetes and HIV/AIDS. It will soon invest millions more in cancer screenings, immunizations, and detection of birth defects — benefits with particularly benefit women. Already, $17 million from the fund has gone to grants in Boehner’s own state of Ohio to provide community prevention, clinical prevention, public health infrastructure and training, and research and data collection.

Rather than protect student loan rates by ending special corporate tax breaks for hugely profitable oil companies, Boehner is asking Americans to choose between enabling students to afford college and investing in preventative care for women and children.

Election

Boehner: Romney’s Wealth Won’t Hurt Him Because ‘The American People Don’t Want To Vote For A Loser’

By Travis Waldron on Apr 29, 2012 at 11:30 am

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has struggled to connect with average voters throughout his campaign, but that won’t hurt him in the general election, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said Sunday.

Asked by CNN’s Candy Crowley whether Romney’s wealth presented him with a “hill to climb” in tough economic times, Boehner said it wouldn’t because “the American people don’t want to vote for a loser”:

CROWLEY: You know, he comes from a privileged background. You did not come from a privileged background. This is a time — an economic time when people are hurting and have been hurting for quite some time.

Do you think that someone who is as wealthy as he is, who has had as much privilege as he is, has a hill to climb to overcome that?

BOEHNER: No. The American people don’t want to vote for a loser. They don’t want to vote for someone that hasn’t been successful. I think Mitt Romney has an opportunity to show the American people that they, too, can succeed.

Romney has consistently reminded voters of his wealth, noting that he is friends with the owners of NASCAR and pro football teams, that his wife has “a couple of Cadillacs,” or that he doesn’t consider $374,000 in speaking fees to be “very much.” That top Republicans consider Americans who don’t enjoy those luxuries losers or unsuccessful, however, may be why its nominee has had such a tough time gaining favor with average voters throughout the 2012 election.

Climate Progress

Company Would Abandon Ohio Wind Project Without Tax Credit, Losing 200 Jobs In John Boehner’s Home State

By Stephen Lacey on Apr 26, 2012 at 11:15 am

Will Boehner put a stop to the heel dragging over wind tax credits? AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

A new survey shows that Ohio — the home state of House Speaker John Boehner — supports between 5,000 and 6,000 jobs in the wind industry.

But those jobs are now under imminent threat as a key tax credit for the industry nears expiration at the end of this year.

Just this week, a wind company in Ohio said it will abandon plans for a $20 million, 54-turbine project without an extension of the production tax credit (PTC). The project would create between 150-200 construction jobs for Ohioans, according to Everpower Renewables, the company building the wind farm.

The cost and price of wind electricity have come down steadily in recent years, allowing wind companies to sign power purchase agreements for as little as a few cents per kilowatt-hour. However, the glut of supply in the natural gas sector — a sector that enjoys numerous permanent tax credits for drilling and production — has made it difficult for wind producers to compete without an equivalent tax credit.

The PTC provides an owner of a wind farm with a tax credit of 2.2 cents for every kilowatt-hour of renewable electricity generated. The credit has allowed the wind industry to compete with the heavily-subsidized fossil fuel industry and expand dramatically throughout the U.S.

Under Speaker Boehner, the House of Representatives has failed to extend this key tax credit for wind — even with very strong support from many Republicans. 47 members of the Senate has also balked on the credits, voting to preserve $24 billion in oil and gas industry tax credits, while voting down the PTC for the wind industry.

In the last five years, wind has brought $20 billion of annual private investment to the U.S., according to the American Wind Energy Association. There are now 75,000 jobs across the country in wind manufacturing, operations, maintenance and education.

With the PTC under threat, the industry says it expects around 37,000 job losses in the coming year. The wind turbine manufacturer Vestas (which, coincidentally, provided the wind turbines for Ohio’s first wind project) says it will lay off 1,600 American workers if the credit is not extended.

There are reportedly no U.S. new wind projects in the works for 2013 due to the uncertainty around tax credits.

Over the last few months, numerous coalitions of bi-partisan political leaders have sent letters to Congress urging immediate passage of the PTC. Congress has continually failed to act.

Speaker Boehner says that jobs are his top priority for 2012. And he has the opportunity to save hundreds — if not thousands — in his own home state just by helping pass a simple extension of the wind tax credit.

NEWS FLASH

Speaker Boehner ‘Hasn’t Thought Much’ About Advancing ENDA | After refusing to sign an executive order that would protect employees of federal contractors from anti-LGBT discriminators, the Obama administration claimed that the “time is right” for a legislative solution, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). But House Speaker John Boehner (R) today claimed, “I haven’t seen the bill. I haven’t thought much about it.” Nine out of ten voters believe that the LGBT community already has federal employment protections, which is surely why Boehner didn’t want to sound opposed to the bill, but it’s unlikely ENDA could ever advance in Congress as long as Republicans control the House.

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