Boehner, Republicans must start cooperating
If you didn’t already think the Republican Party needed to change to keep up with the commanding Democrats, perhaps Speaker of the House John Boehner’s confession that he rejected President Barack Obama’s latest budget proposal without even reading it will convince you otherwise.
Obama’s latest budget proposal included an olive branch of chaining Social Security benefits to a slow-growing consumer price index, which would lower the average Social Security payment for elderly Americans. This compromise shows he’s willing to cooperate with Republicans and stray from his political base’s leftist platforms. Boehner’s unwillingness to read a proposal written to elicit cooperation suggests he and House Republicans may not have our best wishes in mind.
Obama has no interest in the chained CPI for Social Security; it’s simply the price of progress he must pay to get an agreeable budget in motion. In fact, he added this provision because, only a couple months ago, Boehner had decreed that any budget proposal without the chained CPI would be swiftly rejected.
Congress will continue to suffer in its doldrums until men like Boehner are purged by the public and the Republican Party can return to a semblance of its glory from 1968 through 1988, when it won four of five elections. In the meantime, we the people can only grimace as we watch one of our most powerful political leaders wield his leverage like an unruly son. Rejecting a proposal without reading it is an irresponsible act we can all frown on, no matter our political leaning.