Boehner and Ryan Conflict on Oil Subsidies

Speaker of the House John Boehner rejected calls by Democrats for a vote on legislation to repeal tax breaks and subsidies for oil companies Thursday.

“The Speaker wants to increase the supply of American energy to lower gas prices and create millions of American jobs,” Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said in an email to The Daily Caller. “Raising taxes will not do that.”

Boehner’s decision comes after a group of 28 Democrats called on him to hold an up-or-down vote on legislation that would end about $8 billion in oil subsidies each year.

“With gas prices on the rise, we would welcome the opportunity to show our constituents that Congress is ready to stop wastefully subsidizing some of the most profitable businesses in the world and instead use that money to reduce the deficit and invest in real relief from high gas prices,” the Democrats wrote to Boehner.

Boehner also had some harsh words for Obama Thursday following the release of weak GDP figures. “Skyrocketing gas prices continue to batter families and small businesses, and the Obama administration is making the problem worse by blocking more American energy production,” said Boehner in a statement.

The Ohio Republican, though, has been walking back comments he made earlier this week that signaled he would be open to ending oil subsidies. Oil companies will “pay their fair share in taxes and they should,” said Boehner in an interview on ABC. On ending the subsidies, the Speaker said it is “certainly something that we oughta be looking at.”

The White House immediately seized on Boehner’s comments and sent a letter to congressional leaders urging action.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California was among the Democrats who called on Boehner to act. “There is no reason American taxpayers should subsidize Big Oil’s profits,” she said in a statement Thursday. ”This week, Speaker Boehner said that oil companies should pay their fair share; it’s now time for him to make good on that statement and schedule a vote next week on ending taxpayer subsidies to Big Oil.”

Gas prices have risen sharply in recent weeks. And while the Obama Administration and some lawmakers are targeting oil companies, attention has also been turned to the role speculators play in driving up prices at the pump. The Department of Justice, in fact, announced a task force last week to investigate fraud and price gauging in the oil market.

In a conference call Thursday with the Center for American Progress (CAP), Michael Greenberger, former director of the Division of Trading and Markets at the Commodity Futures and Trading Commission (CFTC), stressed the impact speculators have had on gas prices.

“Ever since May of 2008 when we had the last bubble of oil prices and gasoline – there has been evidence…demonstrating that speculating in the price of oil – betting on upward direction of price – sends a signal to the market and has substantial impact on upward price of oil.”

Oil companies release first quarter profits this week, which will likely only cause the debate over high gas prices to intensify. Exxon, for example, reported their largest first-quarter net income increase in eight years with $10.7 billion, a 69 percent increase over last year.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/04/28/boehner-rejects-calls-for-vote-on-legislation-to-end-oil-subsidies/#ixzz1KxHjecQS

What Ever Happened to "Where Are the Jobs?"

Before the 2010 congressional elections, Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) and his fellow GOPers developed and implemented a simple campaign strategy: Say "where are the jobs?" over and over and over. Even though the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office declared that President Barack Obama's stimulus package had created or saved about 3 million jobs and a recovery (albeit a weak one) was underway, the Republicans blamed Obama for screwing up the economy (not Wall Street or the Bush-Cheney administration). In politics, an attack doesn't have to be fair or accurate to work—and this one did.

Since then, have you heard Boehner screaming about jobs? No. He and his comrades have focused on one thing:
Mother Jones

Palin Blasts Obama's Insensitivity

Palin Blasts Obama on Ground Zero Mosque Endorsement

Brava to Governor Palin for standing up and speaking out against this profoundly insensitive and egregious attack on the American heart. Obama has sealed his fate and shown himself to the American people.

Worse still for his party, but good for the American people, every Democrat now has to come out from his or her hiding place and state a position on Ground Zero mega mosque.

Legitimate Questions for the President

Mr. President, should they or should they not build a mosque steps away from where radical Islamists killed 3000 people? Please tell us your position. We all know that they have the right to do it, but should they? And, no, this is not above your pay grade. If those who wish to build this Ground Zero mosque are sincerely interested in encouraging positive "cross-cultural engagement" and dialogue to show a moderate and tolerant face of Islam, then why haven't they recognized that the decision to build a mosque at this particular location is doing just the opposite? Mr. President, why aren't you encouraging the mosque developers to accept Governor Paterson's generous offer of assistance in finding a new location for the mosque on state land if they move it away from Ground Zero? Why haven't they jumped at this offer? Why are they apparently so set on building a mosque steps from what you have described, in agreement with me, as "hallowed ground"? I believe these are legitimate questions to ask.

Other Republican leaders:

John Boehner, the Ohio Republican who is the House minority leader, said: ”The decision to build this mosque so close to the site of ground zero is deeply troubling, as is the president’s decision to endorse it.”

“The American people certainly don’t support it,” Mr. Boehner said.

Representative Peter King, a New York Republican, said that while the Muslim community has the right to build the mosque, doing so needlessly offends too many people.

“President Obama is wrong,” Mr. King said. “It is insensitive and uncaring for the Muslim community to build a mosque in the shadow of ground zero. While the Muslim community has the right to build the mosque they are abusing that right by needlessly offending so many people who have suffered so much. The right and moral thing for President Obama to have done was to urge Muslim leaders to respect the families of those who died and move their mosque away from Ground Zero. Unfortunately the president caved into political correctness."

Newt Gingrich, the former House Speaker, also condemned the proposed mosque and the President’s comments.

“There is nothing surprising in the president’s continued pandering to radical Islam,” he said. “What he said last night is untrue and in accurate. The fact is this is not about religious liberty.”

Mr. Gingrich said the proposed mosque would be a symbol of Muslim “triumphalism” and that building the mosque near the site of the Sept. 11 attacks “would be like putting a Nazi sign next to the Holocaust Museum.”

“It’s profoundly and terribly wrong,” he said.

Here is What Obama Said

More GOP Lies

John Kerry, HuffPost

Here is what Obama said about Mid-East conflict:

“But what I think is that this constant wound, that this constant sore, does infect all of our foreign policy. The lack of a resolution to this problem provides an excuse for anti-American militant jihadists to engage in inexcusable actions, and so we have a national-security interest in solving this, and I also believe that Israel has a security interest in solving this because I believe that the status quo is unsustainable.”

Here is how two Republicans distorted the words:

But of course, today, rather than seriously disputing that, or, even better, offering a vision of their own on how to find peace in the Middle East and security for Israel, Rep. John Boehner and Rep. Eric Cantor - senior leadership in the House GOP -- decided to ignore the actual meaning of English words and simply invent something Barack Obama didn't say. Here is what they said

Israel is a critical American ally and a beacon of democracy in the Middle East, not a 'constant sore' as Barack Obama claims. -- John Boehner

It is truly disappointing that Senator Obama called Israel a 'constant wound,' 'constant sore,' and that it 'infect[s] all of our foreign policy.' These sorts of words and characterizations are the words of a politician with a deep misunderstanding of the Middle East and an innate distrust of Israel -- Eric Cantor