2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumHouse Republicans Head to Retreat Amid Frustration, Low Ratings
By James Rowley - Fri Jan 20 05:01:00 GMT 2012
House Republican leaders have a complicated task as their members gather for an annual retreat: to pull together a caucus that shares in Congresss low approval ratings and develop a legislative agenda that unifies the party.
The retreat being held at a harbor-front hotel in Baltimore comes one month after U.S. House Speaker John Boehner had to capitulate in a standoff with the Democratic-controlled Senate and accept a two-month extension of a payroll tax cut deal. He is also facing frustration from House freshmen, many backed by the Tea Party movement, who say their party fell short of its goals of slashing federal spending and the governments debt.
We have a very long way to go on a lot of issues that are really important, said Representative James Lankford, a freshman Republican from Oklahoma. He said Congress succeeded last year by not further increasing spending on discretionary programs. But what we have not succeeded at is stopping the avalanche of debt that is coming on us, he said in a telephone interview. Thats the frustration.
The election in 2010 of 87 House Republican freshmen presented both an opportunity and challenge for Boehner as his party took control. Many of the freshmen have been impatient for quick results and are pushing to move faster. They were at the center of battles last year over legislation to extend government spending authority.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-20/house-republicans-head-to-retreat-amid-frustration-low-ratings.html
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,438 posts)Wait Wut
(8,492 posts):rolf:
PRETZEL
(3,245 posts)My hope is that come GE time, many of these freshmen are still frustrated.
They'll have to run for re-election doing backflips to distance themselves from Boehner and the rest of the leadership which has caused their approval ratings to be basically nothing.
Add to that the possibility of having to try and ride the coattails of a R-money (or whomever) presidential campaign and yeah, their worried.
Good.
madinmaryland
(64,933 posts)They should be able to see Occupy Baltimore from their hotel windows!!!
lovemydog
(11,833 posts)by being truly conservative and cutting our insanely high defense budget.
But those dumb jackasses never even consider it.
ellisonz
(27,711 posts)Tx4obama
(36,974 posts)and they basically did NOTHING for the three days they were back (see here: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2012/index.asp )
all of that 'doing nothing' must have really worn them out so much they had to take another break!
LOL