Nancy Pelosi hands over Majority Speaker of the House to John Boehner

So here we go folks, “The Boys Are Back in Town”…

Republicans are once again in control of the House Of Representatives and this time things will be different!

Seriously, Boehner and the Republicans promise this will not be a repeat of 1994 when they took control of the House during the Clinton presidency.  They will not make the same mistakes that was made back then as they understand that the House is for the people and not a toy for career congressmen.  Yesterday (1/5/2011) Speaker Boehner officially became the Majority Speaker of the House and during his address to the House laid down a framework (Rules Package) for a “New Congress”.

“No longer can we fall short… No longer can we kick the can down the road… The people voted to end business as usual and today we begin to carry out their instructions.”

“The American people have humbled us; they have refreshed our memories to just how temporary the privilege of serving is.  They have reminded us that everything here is on loan from them…”

Boehner focused on the following key points:

• An emphasis on ‘REAL’ transparency
• Greater accountability
• A renewed focus on the constitution
• Legislators and public will have 3 days to review bills before they come up for vote
• Implement Cut-as-you-go; in order to introduce any spending you must first make cuts in other areas to pay for the spending
• A fair an open process
• You will always have the right for a debate to make your case and offer alternatives on legislations

Hmmmm, I have to admit at first glance the above framework for running the House SEEMS to be impressive… BUT it took Republicans less than a day for them to already break one of their “RULES”.  During Boehner’s speech he made sure to point out that a Nancy Pelosi run House did not allow for real debate and that would not be the case under his watch.  Well I guess Eric Cantor must have missed the memo; Cantor has already stated he will put forward a repeal bill (repeal health-care law aka Obamacare) but he will not allow amendments from the Democrats.

Um, that doesn’t sound like a…

fair an open process or a debate allowing everyone the chance to offer alternatives on legislation!!

This is the “New Congress”?

I am more than willing to give the Republicans a chance to do their thing but come on guys, at least let the dust settle before you start breaking your own rules.  It’s still early but the GOP is not showing me anything; they rather work on repealing Obamacare as they call it instead of focusing on the deficit and creating jobs.  Speaking of deficits, I thought Republicans and the Tea Party were serious about controlling spending and running a fiscally responsible government?

If that is the case, why would they not include tax cuts as part of their Cut-As-You-Go program?  Republicans made sure that tax cuts were exempt from Cut-As-You-Go; this will allow the House to present tax cut legislation that could be unpaid for and add to our already $14 Trillion dollar National Deficit.

I don’t know John Boehner this looks a whole lot like “Business As Usual”

but I guess “We can disagree without being disagreeable….