The United States
Boehner Vows to Press Agenda Aggressively as House Leader
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR
The new Speaker of the House, John Boehner, promised a new era of
transparency in lawmaking on Wednesday, but he also pledged to
aggressively push forward the conservative agenda that swept his party
into power.
A roll-call vote of the chamber's 435 members ended the way the
results of November's election determined that it would: with more
votes for Mr. Boehner than for the Democratic leader, Representative
Nancy Pelosi of California, making him speaker.
In prepared marks to be delivered after taking the gavel from Ms.
Pelosi, Mr. Boehner described himself as humbled, and said that the
changes he envisions would restore trust to "the people's House."
"We will honor our Pledge to America, built through a process of
listening to the people, and we will stand firm on the Constitutional
principles that built our party, and built a nation," Mr. Boehner, now
second in line to the presidency, planned to say, according to the
remarks. "We will do these things, however, in a manner that restores
and respects the time-honored right of the minority to an honest
debate and a fair, open process."
In the Senate, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader,
offered an olive branch to Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic
majority leader, saying: "Senator Reid and I get along just fine. I
expect it'll stay that way, and I look forward to working together
again."
But he also warned Democratic senators against changing the chamber's
rules to make it harder to mount a filibuster.
"This is precisely the kind of approach a supermajority standard is
meant to prevent," he said. "It exists to preserve the Senate's role
as the one place where the voices of all the people will, in the end,
be heard."
Despite a general atmosphere of bipartisanship on the opening day of
the 112th Congress, Mr. Boehner made no effort in his remarks to
disguise his disgust with the way Ms. Pelosi and her Democratic
majority ran the House over the past four years.
He said the rules of the House under Ms. Pelosi and previous speakers
were "misconceptions" that served as the "basis for the rituals of
modern Washington" — and he pledged to change them.
"There were no open rules in the House in the last Congress. In this
one, there will be many," Mr. Boehner said in his prepared remarks.
"With this restored openness, however, will come a restored
responsibility. You will not have the right to willfully disrupt the
proceedings of the people's House. But you will always have the right
to a robust debate in open process that allows you to represent your
constituents."
Mr. Boehner referred to the complaints of his fellow Republicans that
the Democrats used omnibus legislation and restricted amendments as a
way of moving President Obama's legislative agenda through the House
over the wishes of the minority. Mr. Boehner said in his remarks that
the House's new rules would fix those problems — a claim that
Democratic lawmakers have already challenged.
"The American people have not been well served by them," Mr. Boehner
planned to say. "Today, mindful of the lessons of the past, we open a
new chapter."
Mr. Boehner described the economic challenges facing the country as paramount.
"Nearly 1 in 10 of our neighbors are looking for work," he said.
"Health care costs are still rising for families and small businesses.
Our spending has caught up with us, and our debt will soon eclipse the
size of our entire economy."
But he offered no specifics in the speech about how the new Republican
majority intended to confront those issues. Aides have said that Mr.
Boehner and his party intended to move quickly in the next three weeks
to repeal the president's health care bill and cut spending.
The new speaker acknowledged in his prepared remarks what he called
the "scar tissue" that has formed in the relationship between
Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill. He conceded that there will
be many conflicts in the days ahead.
"We may have different — sometimes, very different — ideas for how to
go about achieving the common good, but it is our shared goal," he
planned to say. "It is why we serve."
More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/06/us/politics/06cong.html
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Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
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