In the 2010 mid-term elections, the democrats lost the House
of Representatives, and inside the white house President Obama knew things were
going to change. 87 new Republican freshmen came to the capital, and they came
ready to fight. Many thought all 87 came with fires blazing. The 87 new people
came to change Washington but first they had to get through John Boehner, the
new Speaker of the House. He was leading a class of insurgents and was no way
in hell ready for the ride they were going to take him on. Imagine a dog
leading a large group of cats. Cats don’t bite much individually, but 87 cats is
scary as hell. The 87 freshmen were just that, ready to bite since the smaller
masses of Republicans couldn’t do it before. Republicans rallied together to go
against Obama’s stimulus package and took various actions to force Obama to cut
spending and raise the debt limit.
The Young Guns were made up of three young Republicans, Majority
Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), Majority Whip Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and
Budget Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), who claimed to be the young, new
faces of the Republican Party. Paul Ryan, future VP runner, created a manifesto
similar to Eisenhower’s times with his idea for a national budget that called
for government spending cuts, no more Obamacare, lower taxes, and the
privatization of health care. Obama responded to this proposition, with Paul
Ryan in the room, and offended most if not all of the Republican Party. 
Soon, it was time for Boehner and Obama to form an alliance
and make some large changes in the capital to make large changes to our debt.
After Boehner promises Obama some tax increases to raise funds, Congressman
Cantor, a fiery representative for the Republican Party, breaks hell loose at
White House meetings to fix the budget. After offending Obama, Eric Cantors
gets thrown to the media wolves and Democrats, gets tucked down a notch or
four, and Boehner is given the opportunity to make his Grand Bargain happen. As
the bargain closed, a group of senators, split Republican and Democrat, called
“The Gang 6” came forward with a bipartisan plan. After trying to fix the Grand
Bargain when Obama asked for $400 billion more, Boehner doesn’t take the deal
and describes the White House as a bowl of jelly. Angry at each other, they
both held press conferences describing the situation. The deal they ended up
cutting was what they called a fiscl cliff. It was a temporary plan until after
the election; it was a pushback you could call it, that put the issues on a cliff
with not much time to make a decision.
After the Republican’s lost the 2012 election, they had some
soul searching to do and Obama had a lot of work to do. Obama hammered home his
campaign platform that the wealth’s taxes would go up, but by December when the
fiscal cliff deadline was soon approaching, Boehner wasn’t ready to make a
Grand Bargain. His plan B, after “backing out”, was to direct the House to make
the legislation to fix the fiscal cliff and to have them create the plans and
make the decisions. Conservatives in the house were angry that Plan B included
a tax increase on millionaires. Just before the vote on the plan, there was an
emergency meeting of the Republican Caucus meeting. There would be no vote. The
Republicans didn’t agree with their own leader.
When will the script change? Biden and McConnell, made a
last minute plan…as usual. People who make over $400,000 per year would have
tax increases, but decisions on government spending cuts were not made, and
policy and political changes that are necessary have not been met either. The
script is repeating itself over and over, Boehner makes a bargain, Obama asks
for a little more, and Biden and Senate swoop in with a last minute, short-term
solution. I think that cuts in government spending need to happen…sure it’s
cool that Obama’s kids get to see Bieber perform in the White House, but he’s
got to be a pretty expensive gig.
P.S. There were WAY too many good memes on this topic...had to put all my favorites in here!
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