Speaker Boehner Reminds Us Once Again How Bad He Is At His Job

You need 218 votes to win any vote in the U.S. House. Last night, the bill to fund the government got 219. In other words, the U.S. Government was almost shut down last night because the Speaker of the House is bad at his job.

You see, the hard-right radical conservatives that have infested Congress did not want to vote to keep the government open, and they made that clear even before a deal was made. No details were going to appease the Tea People in the House or Senate. So the House particularly (although both houses really) was going to need Democratic votes to keep the government open. So the obvious move would have been passing a continuing resolution that funded the government at the levels agreed to with the President in the last fight, and moving on. Boehner of course wasn't willing to actually have a substance fight right now, and he needed Democratic votes. So, he didn't do that.

Instead, in the name of de-regulating Wall Street and letting his radical conservative party salivate for a future fight, he threw in a provision allowing Wall Street firms to gamble with the public's money with only our risk involved, and he threw in a provision allowing for a fight over the President's immigration executive order in the Spring that could shut down the Homeland Security Department. Why? Just because he was willing to gamble that he could get just enough Democrats and Republicans to vote to keep the government open no matter what, so he could do these stupid things.

By the slimmest of margins, Boehner was right and the government stayed open. It took him literally until almost the 11th hour to get the bill done, but they barely did. Had he been slightly wrong on this one, we would have had our second shutdown of his tenure leading Congress. I can't say i'm shocked. He had to rely on Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer to finish this off for him, which basically shows how inept Boehner really is.