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Immigration

Boehner Believes That Immigration Bill Will Pass By End of The Year

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said that the Senate immigration bill has a likely chance of being signed into law by President Obama by the end of the year, during an interview on ABC News with George Stephanopoulos that aired on Tuesday. Boehner gave his support for immigration reform, but did not rule out bringing a bill to the floor that does not have the support of a majority of the House Republican caucus. He did indicate that the Senate bill does not go far enough to secure the border and deferred to the House when asked about his position for the inclusion of a path to citizenship.

Hours before Senate members will cast their first votes to bring the immigration bill to the floor, Boehner indicated that he would not be responsible for the outcome of immigration reform and pointed to the direction that House Republicans would take since “it’s about what the House wants…we’re going to let the House work its will.” House Republicans have been adamant about presenting a piecemeal approach that toughens border security measures and does not include legalization.

As it stands, the Senate bill would enforce a biometric exit system that would strengthen internal enforcement since the system would likely be able to track visa overstays. Currently, 40 percent of undocumented immigrants make up the visa overstay population. Additionally the border is secure since there are “more ‘boots on the ground‘ at the border than there have ever been in history” and undocumented migrant crossings have remained at a net zero.

Security

Boehner Still Opposes Special Committee To Investigate Benghazi

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said on Wednesday that he does not think there needs to be a special select committee to investigate the Obama administration’s handing of the terror attacks in Benghazi, Libya last year.

Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) is leading the House Republican effort for a select committee and Boehner has said in the past that the lower chamber’s established committees can handle Benghazi oversight. On Fox News Wednesday night, the Ohio Republican, despite pressure from his own caucus, said he continues to stand by that position:

HOST GRETA VAN SUSTEREN: Would you be in favor of a select committee at this point to try to sort of narrow it, so it’s not several committees that are doing this investigation?

BOEHNER: Four committees that are heavily involved in this. Probably the most significant committee involved would be the Government Reform and Oversight Committee, headed by Darrell Issa. I think Darrell Issa, Jason Chaffetz, Trey Gowdy and the members of the committee, are doing a good job.

I don’t think at this point in time that it’s necessary. Now, we may get to a point where it is. But at this point, I think our committees are doing a very good job, and I’m going to be supportive of them.

The Senate’s top Republican, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), is also starting to back away from “Benghazi-gate” and so are Republican staffers on Capital Hill. “Some of the accusations, I mean you wouldn’t believe some of this stuff. It’s just — I mean, you’ve got to be on Mars to come up with some of this stuff,” one GOP aide told Roll Call this week.

“This issue is not a sure-fire winner politically for the Republicans unless there is some bombshell that can be surfaced through a hearing in a select committee that has not already been surfaced by the multiple hearings that have been held so far,” said Christopher Preble of the libertarian Cato Institute. “If you spend a lot of time and there’s no additional information that comes out through the process, then you have the appearance of having, at a minimum, wasted a lot of time on a fairly insignificant matter,” he added.

However, it doesn’t seem like Boenher’s friends will give up any time soon. Wolf said recently that the House Speaker would be “complicit” in the (now totally debunked charge of a) Benghazi “cover-up” if he doesn’t ok the special Benghazi committee.

Immigration

Boehner Promises House Won’t Pass Senate’s Immigration Bill

On Thursday afternoon, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) issued a joint statement with Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, Republican Conference Chairman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, and Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte confirming that the House will not accept the comprehensive immigration legislation that advanced by a 13-5 vote in the Senate, but will instead craft its own legislation to pass immigration reform.

During the Senate markup hearings, Boehner stayed out of the immigration fracas, but his statement on Thursday asserted his stance:

The House remains committed to fixing our broken immigration system, but we will not simply take up and accept the bill that is emerging in the Senate if it passes. Rather, through regular order, the House will work its will and produce its own legislation.

One of the ideas that has been floated in the House is a piecemeal approach, but without the consideration of a naturalization pathway, it would not fix the current immigration system. Since only some parts of the bill would ever make it into law, it could create a permanent underclass. Some Republicans like Gov. Jeb Bush (R-FL) have indicated that comprehensive reform is necessary because there is no line for undocumented immigrants to wait, but legal immigration will allow immigrants to positively contribute to the American economy.

Immigration

Over 100 Economists Call On Congress To Pass Immigration Reform

Douglas Holtz-Eakin

In an open letter released by the American Action Forum (AAF) on Thursday, 111 conservative economists signed a pro-immigration reform letter sent to House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). In an effort to garner conservative support to the immigration reform debate, the letter cited the economic benefits of passing an immigration legislation that would help to reduce the deficit.

The letter does not aim to win over Republicans like Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) who staunchly oppose legalization, but it will help Republican leaders on the sideline whose allegiance relies on the signing power of prominent conservative-leaning, pro-immigration supporters like AAF president Douglas Holtz-Eakin and former Republican presidential advisers, R. Glenn Hubbard, Arthur Laffer, Edward Lazear, and Lawrence Lindsey. Additionally, Gov. Jeb Bush (R-FL) released a statement showing his support of an immigration overhaul.

Of one of the many reasons that these conservative economists support the bill, Holtz-Eakin wrote, “according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) an additional 0.1 percent in average economic growth will, over a ten-year period, reduce the federal deficit by over $300 billion.” The CBO is a nonpartisan group that has joined a legion of economic organizations that have concluded that long-term legalization creates positive economic benefits. The CBO findings comes on the heels of a letter written by Stephen Gross, chief actuary of the Social Security Administration who was commissioned by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) to find out the economic impact of the Senate immigration bill. Gross also found that the decade-long legalization process would generate more than $275 billion in revenue for Social Security.

The direct effects of immigration reform would induce a labor-force growth, which in turn would raise the gross domestic product. “A reformed and efficient immigration system” in which a longitudinal study has shown to keep federal benefit systems afloat, would as Holtz-Eakin’s letter puts it, “promote economic growth and ease the challenge of reforming unsustainable federal health and retirement programs.”

Economy

Boehner: GOP’s Debt Ceiling Bill Would Pay China Before Troops

The United States is again approaching its debt limit, though an improving economy and new revenues have pushed the deadline for when it will need to be raised as far back as October. And yet again, Republicans are pushing legislation that amounts to nothing more than a phony fix to the issue, a bill known as the Full Faith and Credit Act that will prioritize debt payments in a way that House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) says “makes it clear to our bondholders that we’re going to meet our obligations.”

But such a plan makes it clear that the U.S. will meet only some of its obligations, leaving many Americans, including troops, veterans, and the elderly, out in the cold. Boehner doesn’t see that as a problem, he told Bloomberg TV last night:

COOK (Host): Doesn’t it mean as Democrats have suggested you’re basically choosing to pay China before U.S. troops?

BOEHNER: Listen. Those who have loaned us money, like in any other proceeding, if you will — court proceeding — the boldholders usually get paid first. Same thing here.

Worse yet, the Republican plan doesn’t allow the nation to avoid default. If the U.S. services its debt payments but still misses others, it is still defaulting on payments it is required to make. Since the bill only allows Treasury to make payments as it receives revenues, and the bulk of its payments are made at the beginning of the month even though revenues don’t come in until later, it would almost certainly be unable to meet at least some of its obligations.

When the GOP has considered similar plans before, Treasury officials have called it “unworkable.” Bipartisan analysts said it was “essentially impossible.” Failing to fulfill spending obligations would be “the first step to becoming a banana republic,” a Bush-era Treasury official said. Instead of inspiring confidence among investors, bondholders, and the American people, the legislation would zap it.

Far from preventing default, the Full Faith and Credit Act would essentially ensure it. That wouldn’t just put paying China ahead of senior citizens and members of the military — it would also hammer economic growth both in the United States and across the world. (HT Huffington Post)

Immigration

Boehner: Boston Bombing Shouldn’t Slow Down Immigration Reform

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) broke with conservatives on Monday and argued that the Boston bombings should not slow down the legislative push for immigration reform. Appearing on Fox News, Boehner said that “if we fix our immigration system it may actually help us understand who all is here, why they’re here, and what legal status they have.”

That position puts Boehner at odds with Republicans like Sen. Dan Coats (R-IN) who warned lawmakers on Sunday that the emotions of the Boston bombings would cloud good policy. “We saw some things post-9/11 that were enacted that if we had had a little bit more rational time to think this through, perhaps we wouldn’t have had some of the pushback on it,” Coats told ABC’s This Week. Conservatives in the House have also urged Congress to slow walk reform.

But advocates, including the GOP senators who are part of the so-called Gang of 8, have maintained that the plan would improve public safety by establishing an entry/exit visa, strengthening border security, and instituting a system of employment verification.

Economy

Boehner Memo Repeats Debt Claims Economists Have Debunked

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) sent a memo to his House Republican colleagues Thursday touting supposed successes the GOP has had this year, and he doing so he urged his caucus to continue their attempts to stave off a debt crisis economists say does not exist.

Boehner’s memo argues that Republicans have been successful in putting pressure on Democrats and President Obama to address the nation’s “soaring debt.” It then goes on to outline areas where the country is still struggling, with these two statements listed first:

The president hasn’t succeeded in getting his additional tax hikes – but the economy still isn’t growing as it should be growing.

The federal bureaucracy is spending less than it otherwise would – but the national debt continues to grow, crowding out investment and eroding confidence needed to support growth.

Those statements are intertwined more than Boehner realizes, since it is his party’s focus on the debt that is holding back the economy’s ability to grow “as it should be growing.” Government spending has plateaued in recent years because Washington has undertaken deep deficit reduction efforts, and spending on domestic programs will be at lower levels this year than it was in 2007, before the Great Recession began. Government spending typically drives economic recoveries, but this time it is actively hindering the recovery because of the budget cuts that have already been enacted.

Meanwhile, Boehner and Republicans like Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) continue to ignore those facts, arguing instead that debt is “crowding out investment…needed to support growth” and putting America on a path to a debt crisis. Economists, however, say neither of those statements is true. “The argument that heavy debt loads slow economic growth doesn’t hold a lot of water,” one told Bloomberg last week, with others adding that the U.S. faced little-to-no threat of a debt crisis in the future.

What the U.S. has instead is an unemployment crisis, one that Boehner acknowledges when he states that “the economy still isn’t growing as it should be growing.” The problem is that Boehner and his Republican colleagues keep supporting policies that will ensure that America’s road to economic recovery is far longer than it should be.

LGBT

As The Supreme Court Considers DOMA, Boehner Goes Mum

House Republicans have paid former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement $3 million to defend the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, but as the legal challenge is heard at Supreme Court on Wednesday morning, GOP leaders have remained silent on the matter.

In 2011, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) convened the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG) and voted to direct the Office of General Counsel to defend DOMA, which prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages. The decision came shortly after President Obama’s Department of Justice announced that it could not defend the unconstitutional measure.

But in light of growing public support for marriage equality, prominent Republicans have been hesitant to discuss the law publicly. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) have yet to issue a press release or Tweet in favor of DOMA and a Nexis search conducted on Wednesday morning showed that neither man has provided quotes to the media (though Boehner briefly addressed the matter last week, when confronted by a reporter). On Wednesday, GOP leadership wouldn’t appear in an NPR story about a case, refusing to explain why they’re spending millions in tax payer dollars. As NPR’s Nina Totenberg reported:

Those defending the law have been strangely unwilling to make their arguments outside court. Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) declined to be interviewed for this broadcast, as did Clement and leading House members who voted for the law.

Since Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) became the first sitting GOP senator to embrace marriage equality, top Republicans have admitted that conservatives have lost the battle against same-sex marriage, noting that young voters overwhelmingly support the freedom to marry. Indeed, a recent poll found that 52 percent of Republican and Republican-leaning voters under 50 now support same-sex marriage, as do 81 percent of Republicans under 30.

Update

Clement refused to speak with reporters after the Supreme Court heard arguments about DOMA on Wednesday morning.

Update

Boehner’s office has issued a comment to Talking Points Memo: “A law’s constitutionality is determined by the courts — not by the Department of Justice,” he said. “As long as the Obama Administration refuses to exercise its responsibility, we will.”

Economy

Boehner Pledges To Keep Country In Perpetual Crisis: Intends To Take Debt Ceiling Hostage Again

Right after the House of Representatives approved a Senate bill to avert a government shutdown, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) set the stage for another down-to-the-wire crisis that will threaten the nation’s economic growth. At his weekly press conference, Boehner indicated that Republicans would again demand spending cuts in exchange for raising the nation’s debt ceiling, which it is set to hit in May.

Boehner said Republicans would only raise the debt ceiling if they got an equal amount of spending cuts, the Huffington Post reports:

Dollar for dollar is the plan,” Boehner told reporters, adding that there have been no major talks on the debt limit at this point.

“The president has been clear that he’s not going to address our entitlement crisis unless we’re willing to raise taxes. I think the tax issue has been resolved,” said Boehner. “So at this point then, I don’t know how we’re going to go forward.”

Boehner’s House of Representatives has created an atmosphere of perpetual crisis in Washington since the GOP took control in 2011. The GOP took the government to the brink of shutdown early in 2011 before nearly forcing a default by demanding spending cuts in exchange for a debt ceiling increase that summer. That fight set up sequestration, the automatic budget cuts that threatened to derail the economy at the beginning of 2013 before a last minute deal pushed them back to the beginning of March. Republicans failed to extract more cuts when the debt ceiling was temporarily extended in January, but Boehner is now seeking to make sure cuts happen in May — even though the U.S. has already cut more than $2 trillion in spending over the last three years.

Those cuts have hammered the economic recovery, as has the culture of crises Boehner and the GOP have created. The last debt ceiling fight increased borrowing costs and slowed down economic growth, but despite evidence that both the GOP’s fights and their preferred policies are harming the economy, Boehner insists on repeating the same mistakes. Raising the debt ceiling was never an issue for Boehner when George W. Bush was president, but the recent fights have proven so harmful that top policymakers like Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke are now calling for the permanent abolition of the debt limit.

Economy

Boehner Agrees With Obama: The Debt Crisis Is Not ‘Immediate’

The arrival of budget season has brought debt panic back to the Beltway. But President Obama threw cold water on the matter last week, telling ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that the United States does not face “immediate crisis in terms of debt.” And this morning, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) essentially told ABC’s Martha Raddatz he agrees with Obama, calling the debt crisis “looming,” but not “immediate.”

“We do not have an immediate debt crisis,” Boehner said on ABC News’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos.” “But we all know that we have one looming. And we have — one looming — because we have entitlement programs that are not sustainable in their current form. They’re gonna go bankrupt.” [...]

“[President Obama's] point, as he went on to say in that interview, is that we don’t — we don’t really need to do anything at this point. And I would argue that we do need to do something,” said the House speaker.

Debt is already projected to remain at or below its current share of the economy for the next decade, and it’s good that Boehner is standing in agreement with the president on that point.

Unfortunately, the budget the House Republicans just released does not reflect this realization. It cuts all spending that isn’t Medicare, Social Security, or the military down to near-historic lows over the next ten years. America’s economy remains in the doldrums, leaving the unemployment rate at 7.7 percent (it has never been that high for that long since the Great Depression) and all the real-world evidence we have indicates that austerity in depressions cripples economic growth. If everyone agrees the debt crisis is not immediate, then job growth and economic revival should be topping deficit reduction on the country’s list of priorities.

Nor is there a great deal of evidence to back up Boehner’s distinction between an “immediate” and “looming” debt crisis. The long-term projections of mounting debt he and other D.C. lawmakers rely on are in fact riddled with dramatic assumptions and uncertainties about the future behavior of both Congress and the economy.

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