Eye Recommend --- Boehner Wants Obama to Act 'On His Own' On Border Crisis

BOEHNER WANTS OBAMA TO ACT 'ON HIS OWN' ON BORDER CRISIS, by Steve Benen -- http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/boehner-wants-obama-act-his-own-border-crisis

The irony here is overwhelming; and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is completely oblivious to it.

"The new House Republican leadership team held a brief press conference (on Tuesday) following a closed-door caucus meeting, fielding a few questions, all of which related to the humanitarian crisis at the U.S./Mexico border...

...Question:  Just a follow up on that: are you still committed to having a vote before you leave? And, given the concerns within your own conference about the costs of this border bill, can you pass something?

Boehner:  Listen, I, I'd like to act.  We've got a humanitarian crisis on the border, and that has to be dealt with.  But the president clearly isn't going to deal with it on his own, even though he has the authority to deal with it on his own.

Wait a second.  Hold on.  Boehner has spent months shouting, sometimes literally, about President Obama's out-of-control power grabs... Boehner is so outraged by Obama's willingness to act unilaterally that the Speaker is literally going to take the White House to Court.

But when push comes to shove, Boehner's apoplexy is a sham.  When the Speaker wants a shift in U.S. policy in Iraq, he demands that Obama deploy troops on his own, whether Congress approves the administration's policy or not."

In a June press conference, Mr. Boehner tried to explain the justification for discussing impeachment and for the GOP lawsuit against the President.  He stated that the President had over-stepped his rights in Iraq...and then said it's not his, (the Speaker's) place to dictate foreign policy to the President but--and note this was in the same press conference--stated that he, (the President) has the right to deploy troops in Iraq with or without the approval of Congress and he should act on that before it is too late.

"When Boehner wants a shift in border policy and finds he's incapable of passing a bill, he again suggests the president can do as he pleases, without regard for lawmakers' approval.

If the Speaker of the House believes Obama should take fewer unilateral actions, fine.  If Boehner believes the president should take more unilateral actions, that's OK too.  But right now, Congress' top Republican official is making both arguments at the same time, which suggests the Speaker isn't even taking his own rhetoric seriously...

...So where does that leave us, seven days before members leave town for a month-long break?  House Republicans now have a bill...(but) Boehner doesn't have the votes to pass the bill in his own chamber, so he (has demanded) that the White House tell House Democrats to help support it.  Since the West Wing isn't especially impressed with the House GOP plan, which is about a third of the size of the original package presented by the administration, Obama isn't inclined to help the Speaker jam through a bad bill.

Which brings us back to where we expected to be:  nowhere.  Republicans won't compromise or take the underlying policy issues seriously, and so it now seems very likely that congress will once again do nothing in the face of a crisis."

Except go home for a month's vacation where they can complain that the President wouldn't help them, leaving the President to deal with the crisis on his own after which they can complain that he is acting on his own without their approval or input.

It's the same ol', same ol'.  The GOP doesn't like the President, refuses to compromise on anything and then holds press conferences complaining that the President won't work with them (GOP translation: "work with" = do what we want and only what we want, no additions or subtractions.)   

This is  followed by complaining that the President over-stepped when he works around their chronic obstructionism.  It's the same message, they only need open their book of grievance form letters, fill in the issue of the day and read it to the press.