Showing posts with label John Boehner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John Boehner. Show all posts

Sunday, August 30, 2015

[VIDEO] Scott Walker Takes on Boehner for Calling Cruz ‘Jackass': ‘It’s Just Wrong’

During a Friday appearance on The Hugh Hewitt ShowScott Walker defended fellow Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz after Speaker of the House John Boehner called him “that jackass.”
“I think it’s just wrong,” Walker said. “…Even though I don’t know Senator Cruz as well as I know some of the governors, I’ve grown to like him and admire him quite a bit out on the campaign trail.”
“Does this rhetoric help at all in the party, when people are slamming each other left and right like this?” host Hugh Hewitt asked.
“No, it doesn’t at all,” Walker said. “Particularly at a time when so many Americans, rightfully so, are frustrated that we can’t get things done in Washington. I’m frustrated.”
Watch, via The Hugh Hewitt Show.

Friday, August 21, 2015

[VIDEO] Hillary Campaign Defends Against Emails: It’s Fine, Trust Us

Hillary Clinton’s press secretary Brian Fallon released a video Friday responding to Tweets regarding Hillary’s private email server, saying John Boehner is “dead wrong” in asserting that Clinton is under criminal investigation.
Thursday, U.S. District Court judge Emmet Sullivan stated in regards to Hillary Clinton, “We wouldn’t be here today if this employee had followed government policy.”
Brian Fallon: When John Boehner tells you that Hillary Clinton is under criminal investigation for mishandling of classified emails, he is dead wrong. Number one, the Justice Department, itself has said that this is a noncriminal inquiry. Number two, Hillary Clinton herself is not the target. Number three, in every case that has surfaced to date, the State Department has said that none of the information was classified at the time it was sent.

Saturday, August 15, 2015

Poll: 23% of Americans View Boehner Favorably; 22% View McConnell Favorably

CNSNews.com) – A new Gallup poll on Congress and its leaders shows that only 23% of Americans view House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) favorably, and only 22% view his Senate counterpart, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) favorably.
Gallup further reports that Boehner’s ranking is similar to that of then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in October 2010, when only 26% of Americans viewed her favorably. Also, for then-Senate Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) in October 2014, he was viewed favorably by only 21% of Americans.
When looking specifically at Republicans, Gallup found that only 37% had a favorable view of Boehner, and only 34% had a favorable view of McConnell.
Boehner has been the Speaker of the House of Representatives since January 2011. McConnell became the Senate Majority Leader in January of this year.

Saturday, August 1, 2015

[VIDEO] Todd Starnes: Congress Vacations While Humans Are Harvested

Congress is packing its bags and getting ready to go to the beach -- the summer recess.
While our elected leaders are working on their tans and sipping fruity drinks with tiny umbrellas -- Planned Parenthood will still be harvesting body parts from aborted babies.
House Speaker John Boehner ignored my call to suspend his vacation and deal with this most pressing matter.
The Center for Medical Progress first exposed Planned Parenthood's human chop shop on July 14th -- and yet - our tax dollars are still being used to subsidize their killing fields.
To be fair - legislation has been introduced - and investigations are underway -- but based on the evidence already uncovered Congress is well within its rights to temporarily suspend funding.
It's the least they could have done.
But sadly -- when it comes to protecting the unborn - the least is the most Congress has ever done.
 

Watch Todd Starnes' American Dispatch above and sound off!

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

House conservative seeks John Boehner's ouster

North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows had heard from leading conservatives that trying to oust Speaker John Boehner right now was a bad idea.

Reps. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), fierce and frequent critics of leadership, thought the move was ill-advised. Some of Meadows’ friends didn’t even see it coming. But just before 6 p.m. Tuesday — a day before the House was set to leave town for its five-week summer recess — Meadows offered a motion to vacate the chair, an extraordinarily rare procedural move that represents the most serious expression of opposition to Boehner’s speakership. If the motion were to pass — most Republicans say it will be hard to cobble together the votes — Boehner would be stripped of the speaker’s gavel, potentially plunging the House of Representatives into chaos.

GOP leaders were taken completely by surprise. Meadows, a second-term Republican, hadn’t even asked for a meeting with Boehner or other top Republicans to air his gripes.
Until now, the North Carolina Republican had taken small steps to undermine Boehner — he voted against procedural motions and against Boehner for speaker. Now he’s declared all-out war, and he could quickly find out how many people are willing to back him up.

Meadows, however, didn’t go as far as he could have. A motion to vacate the chair — last attempted roughly a century ago — is typically considered a privileged resolution. In that format, the House would hold a vote within two legislative days. Meadows, however, chose not to offer it in that form, which he said was a sign that he wanted a discussion.

GOP leadership allies said the move suggests Meadows is trying to steal the spotlight as Congress leaves for its break. He denied that but said a vote was unlikely before the August recess.




Saturday, July 25, 2015

Boehner Wants More ‘Facts’ Before Ending Planned Parenthood Funding. Here’s 8.

House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday that he wants to put “facts first” before using the appropriations process to end federal funding to Planned Parenthood. The most recent reports of harvesting and selling body parts from aborted unborn babies have renewed the call to end the more than half a billion dollars that the organization receives in government funding each year.
Here are just a few more facts that Boehner (and all of Congress) should consider before continuing to send the hard-earned dollars of American taxpayers to the nation’s largest abortion provider:
Fact #1: Planned Parenthood Has Become a Billion-Dollar Organization on the Backs of Taxpayers
Planned Parenthood has ridden the waves of taxpayer funding to millions of dollars in annual surpluses. During its last reporting year, like many before it, the organization reported revenues over expenses exceeding $127 million and net assets of more than $1.4 billion. During that same year, Planned Parenthood received over $528 million in taxpayer-funded grants and reimbursements from federal and state coffers – 41 percent of the organization’s total revenue. As a Government Accountability Office reportreleased this past March demonstrates, a large portion of that taxpayer money comes from a variety of federal sources, including Title X and Medicaid.
Fact #2: Planned Parenthood Performs 1 in 3 Abortions in the U.S.
In the 2013-2014 reporting year alone, Planned Parenthood reported performing 327,653 abortions- and nearly 1 million abortions over the pastthree years. There have even been allegations from former employees of mandatory “abortion quotas” that affiliates must meet and the national organization recently announced that all affiliates would have to begin providing abortion services.
Fact #3: Planned Parenthood has Decreased Preventive Care, While Increasing Abortions
While, according to the organization’s most recent report, Planned Parenthood affiliates performed 327,653 abortions during the last reporting year, they made only 1,880 adoption referrals and provided just 18,684 prenatal services. Indeed, abortion accounted for 94 percent of the organization’s pregnancy-related services (abortion, adoption referral, prenatal services). According toanalysis by Americans United for Life, even cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood have decreased 50 percent since 2004, while the number of abortion procedures has increased by about 70,000 each year during the same time period. And despite some supporters’ statements to the contrary, Planned Parenthood does not and cannot provide mammograms.
Fact #4: Planned Parenthood Has Been Accused of Financial Fraud with Taxpayer Dollars
Planned Parenthood affiliates have been accused of potential fraud when it comes to government reimbursements for services. In 2013, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast agreed to pay an over $4 million settlement for Medicaid fraud according to the Texas Attorney General. Summaries of state audits of family planning programs have indicated similar abuse and fraudulent practices by Planned Parenthood affiliates to the tune of over $8 million across 9 states.
Fact #5: Planned Parenthood Fights Commonsense Laws that Protect Women and Children
Along with its many challenges to commonsense state laws regulating abortion doctors and clinics and fighting a bill in Congress to limit dangerous and gruesome late-term abortions, Planned Parenthood has even opposed legislation that would protect infants born alive after failed abortions. More recently, Planned Parenthood was involved in attempts to derail an anti-human trafficking bill in Congress because the legislation included a longstanding and widely-supported policy against taxpayer funding of abortion.
Fact #6: Planned Parenthood Stands Accused of Jeopardizing the Safety and Health of Women and Girls
While claiming to support the interests of women, Planned Parenthood has also been accused by pro-life advocacy groups of abetting the sex trafficking of minor girls and at least four affiliates in Delaware, Virginia, Colorado and Illinois have been similarly accused of neglecting the health and safety of patients.
Fact #7: Women Can Receive Wider Range of Care at Other Centers
Health care services are already being provided for those who need them without unethical practices or entanglement in abortion. More than 2,000 pregnancy centers provide medical testing, prenatal care, ultrasounds and child-birth classes, among other services to women facing unplanned pregnancies, empowering them with life-affirming options.
In addition to those resources specifically for pregnant women, the federal government funds roughly 1,200 federally qualified health clinics across the country that served 21 million people in 2012 alone and often provide birth control options, cancer screenings and women’s health exams, not to mention a wide-range of primary health services for women, children and men.
Fact #8: Planned Parenthood Advances a Culture that Devalues Life
Planned Parenthood is the leader of a gruesome and ruthless industry, which daily adds to the 56 million unborn children and countless women harmed by abortion.
The videos released over the last week have merely shown the nation where the logic of abortion-on-demand inevitably leads: to where tiny livers and lungs are useful for harvesting, but the nameless baby they come from is too small, dependent, disabled, or simply too inconvenient to be allowed to continue living. The value of a life within Planned Parenthood’s walls is measured by its utility and convenience – rather than the inherent dignity of every human being.
Congress Must Stop Funding Planned Parenthood
Regardless of the outcome of the very necessary congressional inquiry, there is no reason to continue entangling federal money with an organization nearly allof whose pregnancy-related services are abortion procedures.
There is nothing stopping individuals, organizations and businesses from continuing to fund Planned Parenthood with private dollars (although, requests by Coca-Cola, Ford and Xerox to remove their names from Planned Parenthood’s corporate donors list may be indication that even the private sector isn’t too happy with the latest, horrific revelations about the non-profit).
Policymakers looking to put limited taxpayer funds to more efficient and effective use should redirect those dollars to centers and clinics that can provide more comprehensive care for women. All women – but especially those facing difficult circumstances – deserve better care for their health and more options than the cold doors of an abortion facility.
No society that is truly committed to protecting basic human rights can continue funding an industry that harms women, takes the lives of the most vulnerable children and cheapens our respect for life – especially when its leader allegedly harvests and sells tiny organs for profit.
Those should be all the facts Congress needs to end funding of Planned Parenthood.

Friday, July 24, 2015

House, Senate heading for showdown on highway funding

Senate and House Republicans are heading to a showdown over transportation spending.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) wants to pass a six-year highway deal before Thursday to give the House time to take it up before the August recess, according to a Senate GOP leadership source.
But opposition to the Senate bill is growing on the other side of the Capitol.
House Republican leaders want the Senate to instead pass a five-month highway patch and won’t say whether they would give the Senate transportation bill a vote in their chamber.
McConnell is betting that House GOP leaders will relent once they have the bill in their laps, with the Highway Trust Fund due to expire on Aug. 1.
The House adjourns for the August recess at the end of next week.
“The House will have to make a decision. The temporary bill is just another patch,” said Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn (Texas).
McConnell tried a similar gambit in May when he attempted to jam the House with a clean extension of the National Security Agency’s surveillance authority. It blew up when he failed to muster the 60 votes needed to pass it out of the Senate.
The Senate leader was still mulling his legislative options on Thursday, but senators and aides said the most likely scenario is that he will offer the six-year highway bill as a substitute amendment on the floor Friday to get the ball rolling and then fill the amendment tree to limit the debate.
Senators and aides then expect McConnell to file cloture on an amendment to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank, setting up a vote on Sunday or Monday on the controversial agency. 
A Senate aide said McConnell could file cloture — the motion to end debate and proceed to a vote — on the highway bill and the underlying legislative vehicle on the same day he does so for the Ex-Im Bank amendment. That maneuver would allow the Senate to wrap up work on the highway measure and get it to the House by Wednesday.
Don Stewart, McConnell’s spokesman, said Thursday afternoon that no decisions had been made on how to proceed and cautioned there are a variety of paths under consideration.
But other Senate aides said other routes require unanimous consent, an unlikely proposition given strong conservative opposition to the Ex-Im Bank.
Lawmakers and aides said a vote on the bank may be postponed until Monday, but that could push a final vote on the highway package until Thursday unless all 100 senators agree to yield back procedural time.
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said he would wait to see what legislation McConnell can push through the upper chamber.

[VIDEO] Boehner to Hillary: 'Immediately' Turn Over Email Server

Speaker of the House John Boehner is calling on Hillary Clinton to turn over her private email server "immediately."
“Two inspector generals appointed by President Obama have now called on the Justice Department to investigate Secretary Clinton’s mishandling of classified email. If Secretary Clinton truly has nothing to hide, she can prove it by immediately turning over her server to the proper authorities and allowing them to examine the complete record," Boehner says in a statement to the press.
“What these reports demonstrate is the inherent risk of conducting our nation’s diplomacy and foreign policy on your home email and personal server. Secretary Clinton has repeatedly claimed that the work-related emails on her private home server did not include classified information, but we know that is not true. She has claimed she is well-aware of what matters are classified and what are not, and yet she set up a personal email server to discuss matters of national security despite guidance to the contrary from both her State Department and the White House. Her poor judgement has undermined our national security and it is time for her to finally do the right thing.”
In the statement to reporters, the speaker of the House's office reminds reporters of Clinton's March 10, 2015 statement, “I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email. There is no classified material. So I’m certainly well-aware of the classification requirements and did not send classified material."

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Boehner Vows House Will 'Do Everything Possible to Stop' Iran Deal


Image: Boehner Vows House Will 'Do Everything Possible to Stop' Iran Deal
(Mark Wilson/Getty Images

House Speaker John Boehner said Wednesday the chamber's priorities are "the people's priorities," and that lawmakers will continue to fight the recent "bad deal" struck with Iran over its nuclear program.

"Here in the House, the people's priorities continue to be our priorities," Boehner said in a press conference, according to an emailed statement from his office.

"And while the president's Iran deal may have been applauded at the United Nations, I think he faces serious skepticism here at home. Let me just assure you that members of Congress will ask much tougher questions this afternoon when we meet with the president's team. Because a bad deal threatens the security of the American people — and we're going to do everything possible to stop it."

Most Republican lawmakers have long opposed the deal with Iran, which was announced last week. Congress now has 60 days to review the deal, after which it will vote either for or against it. 

If the latter happens, President Barack Obama can veto the rejection — which would then require two-thirds of lawmakers to veto that decision if Congress decides to press on.

According to Fox News, the White House sent Congress a copy of the entire agreement on Sunday.

Obama irked lawmakers this week by submitting the deal to the United Nations — which approved of the deal — before allowing Congress the time to read, vet, and vote on the agreement.

House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul took the criticism a step further, saying he would have liked to see the American people weigh in on the deal before it was placed in front of the United Nations Security Council.

The White House responded to the criticisms by saying rejecting the deal would let Iran off "scot-free." 


Via: Newsmax

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Saturday, July 18, 2015

John Boehner Says California's Drought Is Obama's Fault. He's Almost Right

We should be pointing fingers at California lawmakers—not the president.

Thank you, John Boehner, for flagging an underrated feature of California’s ongoing water crisis: The government deserves blame.

Well, that’s not exactly what the Republican House Speaker and Ohio Congressman said on Facebook earlier this week. Beneath a photograph of a sign promoting water conservation in Arcadia, California, Boehner (or, at least, Boehner’s social-media minion) railed against what he called “President Obama’s man-made water shortage in the West”:

Though this is also the man who said mere months ago that he is “not qualified to debate the science over climate change,” Boehner has a point when he emphasizes managing water resources “in a way that actually makes sense” over “liberal environmentalists’ backwards priorities” —i.e., reducing water use for landscaping and (gasp!) letting lawns go brown.

Allow me to explain: Water conservation by individual people and localities, no doubt, is an important part of managing California’s worst-on-record drought. But even more important is getting state and local water management policies right, since all relevant research implies this drought will hardly be the state’s (or the country’s) last.

Groundwater is California’s most important reserve in times of drought, and it is essential to farmers, many of whom rely on deep wells to irrigate crops. Yet before Governor Jerry Brown signed the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act into law last fall, California had effectively zero rules on the books about pumping groundwater. And in practice, it still doesn’t; that groundwater act won’t really go into effect for decades to come.
So, even though the state’s surface is literally uncoiling like a spring due to severe groundwater loss, and even though some small-town residents have no water coming out their taps for the very same reason, Californians can still stick new straws into the big ol’ milkshake glass. It’s about as serious a tragedy of the commons as they come. If state lawmakers had chosen to act decades ago, or if local water districts actually kept track of how much groundwater farmers and homeowners are pumping, California’s bind would be far less serious.

Though Boehner references in his Facebook post a bill that essentially pins blame for the drought on federal environmental policies, Obama is not at fault for any of this. (And, for what it’s worth, that bill is unlikely to go anywhere, as similar efforts have failed to pass the Senate.)

But lawmakers at the state and local levels do deserve some blame. There’s lots of water in California; it’s just not nearly as well managed as it needs to be. There’s plenty of room for policy reform, including tighter, smarter groundwater management, encouraging conservation-based pricing schemes for residents, and creating a more effective water market to promote agricultural conservation.

On this one, Mr. Boehner, I tip my hat to you.






Thursday, July 16, 2015

[VIDEO] Lawmakers Knew About Planned Parenthood Video Weeks Ago (Video)

When an undercover video of a Planned Parenthood executive casually discussing the harvesting of fetal tissue and organs went viral Tuesday, House Republicans took notice, with party leaders calling for investigations just one day later. Speaker John A. Boehner and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy issued terse statements, the Judiciary and Energy and Commerce committees announced hearings and Rep. Lynn Jenkins, R-Kan., called for a Justice Department probe into whether the nation’s largest abortion provider broke the law in supplying the tissue to medical research firms.
All in all, it was a furious, news-cycle dominating flurry of Capitol Hill reaction — to a video that at least two top Republicans said they first saw weeks ago.
Boehner Calls Planned Parenthood Video ‘Disgusting’
Rep. Tim Murphy, a member of the House Pro-Life Caucus and chairman of the Energy and Commerce subcommittee looking into the video, said at a Wednesday news conference he’d seen the clip weeks before. Asked afterward why he and others waited until this week to take action, Murphy struggled for an answer before abruptly ending the interview with CQ Roll Call, saying he should not be quoted and remarking, “This interview didn’t happen.”
Here’s an excerpt from CQ Roll Call’s hallway chat with Murphy:
CQ Roll Call: “So, what I wondered was, what’s happened in those few weeks? Why is it coming out now and not earlier?”
Murphy: “Um, I don’t know why. All I know is I saw it and he said he was going to post it eventually, so that’s all I know.”
Murphy spokeswoman Gretchen Andersen told CQ Roll Call on Thursday the congressman had a responsibility to do “due diligence” before starting an investigation.
Another Pro-Life Caucus and Judiciary committee member, GOP Rep. Trent Franks of Arizona, said Wednesday he had also seen the video about a month ago.
Asked why steps weren’t taken immediately after he viewed the video, Franks said in an email, “The hope was to have as much information as possible so that the authorities could be notified effectively before the media.”
The video, shot a year ago by the anti-abortion group Center for Medical Progress, shows an interview with a Planned Parenthood executive who discusses, between bites of salad and sips of red wine, the costs charged to researchers for organs taken from fetuses.
Officials at Planned Parenthood contend the video was edited to create the appearance of the start of a financial transaction. Planned Parenthood also said it only donates fetal organs and tissue when the mother has explicitly given consent, in accordance with the law.
The Center for Medical Progress did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Monday, July 13, 2015

Sanders Battles Boehner on Min. Wage: ‘Who’s Out of the Mainstream?’

2016 Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders responded on Face the Nation Sunday morning to criticism from House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) that he was “out of the mainstream” with his desire to raise taxes to pay for his policies.
“Well, let me respond to that issue by issue, and you determine who’s out of the mainstream,” Sanders said.
“I want to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. A recent Wall Street Journal poll said majority of the American people want to do that. John Boehner is not going to bring up any legislation in the house to raise minimum wage. Many want to get rid of the concept of minimum wage.”
Sanders repeated the formula with Social Security and infrastructure.
“In terms of who’s out of touch with the American people, I’d say Republican party is,” he concluded. “They want to give tax breaks to billionaires, not help the middle class.”

Thursday, July 9, 2015

John Boehner joins growing calls for OPM director's resignation

House Speaker John Boehner, R-OH, steps off Air Force One upon arrival at Charleston Air Force Base on June 26, 2015 in Charleston, South Carolina. Obama is in Charleston, South Carolina to attend services for Reverend and South Carolina State Senator Clementa Pinckney. AFP PHOTO/MANDEL NGAN        (Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)
Speaker John Boehner and the House’s other two top Republicans want Office of Personnel Management Director Katherine Archuleta to resign following the latest massive data breach at her agency – which today officially reached 21.5 million individuals compromised.

“It has taken this administration entirely too long to come to grips with the magnitude of this security breach – a breach that experts agree was entirely foreseeable,” Boehner said in a statement after Thursday’s announcement of the magnitude of the breach of security clearance forms.

“President [Barack] Obama must take a strong stand against incompetence in his administration and instill new leadership at OPM so we can move forward in a fashion that begins to restore the confidence of the American people,” he added.

“Over the past few weeks, news of the OPM data breach has gone from bad, to worse, to absolutely inexplicable,” added House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy. “Only with new leadership can we get a full accounting of what happened and, most importantly, how to prevent this from ever happening again.”

GOP Whip Steve Scalise also put out a statement calling for Archuleta’s resignation.
And in the Senate, so did senior Arizona Republican John McCain.

“I am troubled by the Administration’s lack of response and question how it continues to sit idly by as our adversaries exploit the United States on a continuous basis with little, or meaningless, reprisal,” McCain said. “It is time for new leadership at OPM.”

Via: Politico


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Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Don't Give Obama More Power Over Schools

After spending most of June giving President Obama new authority to negotiate trade deals with low-wage countries in Asia, congressional Republicans are now poised to spend July giving Obama new authority over education in America's public schools. This is a big disappointment for those of us who worked hard to elect a Republican Congress last November. We expected the new Congress to take power back from the president, not give him more.
For the past 50 years, the engine of federal control over local schools has been Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965. It was the first in a series of socialist laws that President Lyndon Johnson promised would lead to a "Great Society" after we won his declared "war on poverty."
Johnson's Great Society legislation was speedily enacted by a Congress in which Democrats outnumbered Republicans by more than two to one (295-140 in the House and 68-32 in the Senate). Despite the trillions of dollars spent since 1965, we're no closer to achieving a Great Society; by many measures, America's education and social welfare are much worse today than when those programs were launched 50 years ago.
Republicans had an opportunity to dismantle the failed regime of federal control when they regained control of both Houses of Congress in 1994 and then elected a president in 2000. Unfortunately, George W. Bush campaigned on the slogan "Leave No Child Behind" as his signature domestic agenda item, and John Boehner, then chairman of the House Education Committee, produced a bill that rebranded the old ESEA under the new title "No Child Left Behind."
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) promised to bring all children (including all demographic minorities measured separately) to 100 percent proficiency by 2014. Of course, that didn't happen, and nearly everyone now recognizes NCLB as a complete failure.
With their current historic majority in both Houses, there's a new opportunity for Republicans to dismantle the 50-year failure of money poured into local public schools with strings attached. Unfortunately, Republicans, once again, are on the verge of just rebranding the same failed programs with new and overly optimistic slogans: the "Student Success Act" (in the House) and the "Every Child Achieves Act," ECAA, (in the Senate).

Sunday, July 5, 2015

Congress returns to face busy agenda, funding deadline

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After July Fourth fireworks and parades, members of Congress return to work Tuesday facing a daunting summer workload and a pending deadline to fund the government or risk a shutdown in the fall.
The funding fight is shaping up as a major partisan brawl against the backdrop of an intensifying campaign season. Republicans are eager to avoid another Capitol Hill mess as they struggle to hang onto control of Congress and try to take back the White House next year.
Already they are deep into the blame game with Democrats over who would be responsible if a shutdown does happen. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has denounced Democrats' "dangerously misguided strategy" while House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California accuses Boehner and his Republicans of pursuing "manufactured crises."
The funding deadline does not even arrive until Sept. 30, but lawmakers face more immediate tests. Near the top of the list is renewing highway funding before the government loses authority July 31 to send much-needed transportation money to the states right in the middle of summer driving season.
The highway bill probably also will be the way lawmakers try to renew the disputed federal Export-Import Bank, which makes and underwrites loans to help foreign companies buy U.S. products. The bank's charter expired June 30 due to congressional inaction, a defeat for business and a victory for conservative activists who turned killing the obscure agency into an anti-government cause celebre.

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