Possibly just to demonstrate how unserious he is, John Boehner issued this tweet today:
Bipartisan plan? I heard Kevin McCarthy, House GOP Majority Whip, say essentially the same thing this morning to NBC’s Chuck Todd, and I’ve heard many Republicans refer to the legislation as “bipartisan.” Since I’ve already written negatively about the the budget-slashing, New Deal-killing bill known here as Cut, Cap and Kill, let’s look at the claim that the bill that passed the House was bipartisan.
H.R. 2560, The Cut, Cap, and Balance Act of 2011, passed the House on July 19 by a vote of 234 to 190, with a not-so-staggering 5 Democrats voting with the Ayes. And I must point out that one of those Democrats—David Boren of neighboring Oklahoma—is no more a Democrat than Ozark Billy Long, with whom he shares a similar voting record in the House. But I’ll be generous and throw in Boren as a Democrat, which means that 98% of the Ayes were official Republicans.
Now, there are 193 Democrats in the House and the five who voted with the GOP represents 2.5% of the caucus. That means that 97.5% of Democrats voted against the constitutional monstrosity.
But I want to make a larger point about this bipartisan nonsense. Using the standards of John Boehner and the House Republicans, the opposition to the Cut, Cap, and Balance bill was decidedly more bipartisan than the support for it. There were nine—count ’em—nine Republicans (3.7% of their caucus) who voted against the bill.
So, we can say that the bipartisan opposition to Cut, Cap, and Kill was nearly twice as strong as the so-called bipartisan support for it.
Tweet that, Mr. Boehner.
The Erstwhile Conservative: A Blog of Repentance 
ansonburlingame
/ July 25, 2011Duane,
If we voted to implement the Golden Rule it would split along party lines. NOTHING today in DC has ANY bipartisan backing.
Can you come up with a bipartisan deal to raise the debt limit? I can’t, at least to the extent that it would begin to solve the problem and not just kick the can down the road.
Anson
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R. Duane Graham
/ July 25, 2011Anson,
Why is there a lack of bipartisanship? Democrats have caved on almost everything Republicans demanded from the start. Now, though, that’s not enough, since they smell blood. There is no bipartisanship–compromise–because the Tea Party doesn’t give a dook about the debt ceiling and its ramifications.
Duane
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ansonburlingame
/ July 26, 2011Duane,
And Democrats don’t give a “dook” about uncontrolled deficits and “its ramifications” either.
On my own blog, I just suggest that you, HLG and I could come up with a bipartisan plan to resolve our debt and deficit problems. But NO politicians can do so today and NO ONE is Lincolnesque today in attempting to do so!!
I wonder where Fort Sumpter (spl) might be located today??
Anson
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R. Duane Graham
/ July 26, 2011Anson,
We can’t have a rational discussion if you can’t see that Democrats, far from not caring about “uncontrolled deficits,” have conceded the debate on deficits to the Republicans, almost completely. Why do you think liberals are so pissed?
It is Republicans (at least most of them) who won’t be realistic, and there’s no point in arguing if we can’t get the basic facts straight. Until the GOP admits to a more balanced approach to the debt problem, then calls on Democrats to give even more will go unheeded.
I have a deficit plan: cut spending and raise taxes. The rest is in the details, but there is no agreement from your side that taxes can be a part of the deal. So, why bother to get into the details? That is essentially what Democrats are saying right now and I agree with them.
Duane
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Angelfire
/ July 26, 2011I think it was amazing he didn’t start bawling last night. We all yelled, “wait for it…..”, “wait for it….”, and damn….he never cried once.
I had imagined him in talks with Obama and the President having to give him tissues every 5 minutes. “Now John”, said the President, “compose yourself…there’s no need for all these tears, we’ll come to a compromise soon…”. “But if we don’t,” John sobbed, “Cantor will get my job”.
Something like that.
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