Republican Party Splitting?

 Behind the scenes it appears the Republican leadership could be splintering. Most see Boehner and McConnell's compromise as a sell-out? Or was it the only choice to drink out of the same cup as Obama, Reid and Pelosi? Read for yourself the cloakroom whisperings:

Hmmmmmm.... From The Guardian:
"House speakers typically don't even vote at all unless it is necessary to break a tie. So it may have been a clarifying moment when speaker of the House John Boehner and House majority leader Eric Cantor parted ways on the deal that ended the long national nightmare known as the fiscal cliff. Boehner voted for the bipartisan agreement negotiated between Vice-President Joe Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell; Cantor breathed the final moments of life into the opposition.

In fact, the House Republican leadership team split right down the middle on the legislation. House majority whip Kevin McCarthy voted against; House Republican conference chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers sided with Boehner and voted in favor.

House conservatives have increasingly chafed under Boehner's leadership. Four independent-minded fiscal conservatives – Justin Amash of Michigan, Tim Huelskamp of Kansas, Walter Jones of North Carolina, and David Schweikert of Arizona – were purged from their preferred committee assignments for their unpredictable voting behavior. Secret "scorecards" were allegedly used in making the decision, though this has been denied publicly. Conservatives helped defeat Boehner's "Plan B" compromise on the fiscal cliff before Christmas.

The problem is that House Republicans are stifled by a Democratic Senate and president. Many of them hail from safe, conservative districts. A critical mass were elected in 2010 with high hopes for cutting government spending. Boehner's efforts to work within these constraints have not endeared him to some restless Republicans.

Enter Eric Cantor. In closed-door meetings of the House Republican conference, he expressed his opposition to the Senate bill before Boehner had taken a stand. He expressed the sense of most Republicans that it raised taxes without getting any meaningful spending cuts in return, that it added to the deficit, and that it created the precedent that any cuts must be paired with tax hikes.

President Obama's team released a statement that morning suggesting they agreed with that last point, practically singing, "Ding-dong, Grover Norquist's dead."

Cantor had tried to establish himself as the right flank of the debt ceiling negotiations in the summer of 2011, famously irritating the president. But many conservatives regarded this as ambition talking more than principle. When the majority leader said out loud what most Republicans were thinking about the fiscal cliff bill, however, there was admiration.

As reports of the meeting leaked out, observers began to wonder if a Cantor coup against Boehner was brewing. Cantor's spokesman, Doug Heye, took to Twitter to quell the rumors:

"Majority Leader Cantor stands with @SpeakerBoehner. Speculation otherwise is silly, non-productive and untrue." Doug Heye

Six hours later, Boehner and Cantor took opposite positions in the roll call vote."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/02/eric-cantor-no-vote-fiscal-cliff

Conservatives Call For Boehner To Step Down

Fired up by the ousting of Justin Amash, conservatives are calling for John Boehner to be replaced as speaker of the house.

Several Republicans hinted that they won’t vote to re-elect him to run the chamber, and a conservative interest group announced a bid to recruit someone else to run against him for the speakership.

Mr. Boehner, an Ohio Republican, is not in any danger yet — the rebellion shows no signs of reaching beyond a small group of dissatisfied lawmakers — but it could complicate his efforts to strike a deal with President Obama to head off the looming “fiscal cliff” that will send tax rates soaring and will impose automatic spending cuts early next month.

American Majority Action, a conservative interest group, on Monday endorsed Rep. Tom Price and two other Republicans who they said should replace Boehner and his top lieutenants, and has launched a lobbying push to try to sway rank-and-file members to withhold their votes from Boehner.

Price won’t challenge Boehner, a spokesman said.

But lawmakers can vote for anyone when the House members cast ballots Jan. 3 for the next speaker, and if Republican members vote for someone other than Boehner.

Justin Amash Speaks Out:

Thanks to those of you at home for speaking out—not for me, but for yourselves. I'm proud and honored to represent the vast majority of Americans who believe that Members of Congress need to work together to balance the budget.

We will no longer sit silently while political insiders and corporate lobbyists saddle our children and grandchildren with an insurmountable debt. It's time for Republican leadership to show us the vote scorecard they used to determine committee assignments—a scoring system that docks a person for fiscal responsibility.

Only in Washington, DC, is a person taken off of the Budget Committee for wanting to balance the budget.

Speaker Of The House John Boehner Is Negotiating With Himself

John Boehner is a complete idiot! He is negotiating with himself. The New York Times is reporting that Boehner is open to tax increases! He is quoted as saying maybe we can increase the tax rate for the top 2% from 35.6% to 37% as long as its less than 39% that Obama wants! He is also offering $800 Billion in "loopholes" aka legitimate deductions to be closed. One such "loophole" is the mortgage interest deduction. If this passes this will devastate the real estate industry and will cause losses in ten's of thousands of real estate related jobs and cause property values to continue to crash.

The Republican Party needs to let the Democrats pass thier massive tax hike. Don't vote just say present. Let the Democrats own this mess and the destruction of the economy. They will get their way regardless they way the cards are stacked, lets not give them the bonus of them being able to blame us for their destruction of the economy.