Speaker Boehner: Jobs are our Top Priority

     I see the news that Boehner promises it's about jobs first and foremost as a good development-it shows that he's aware that the party will pay if Americans see them as just trying to milk the psedoscandals at the expense of what Americans really care about-getting the economy moving closer to its potential so that we get the level of job creation we should

    "House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said in an interview Thursday that House Republicans will “get to the bottom” of an array of White House controversies, while emphasizing jobs as their public message.

“The Congress has the responsibility to get to the truth,” Boehner said. “Whether it’s Benghazi, the IRS scandal, the whole situation with The Associated Press, our committees are going to do their job to get to the bottom.”

   "Boehner added: “Some of this could just be gross incompetence.”

     "Nevertheless, the speaker accused the administration of “an arrogance of power” and said officials are “just not leveling with people.”

     “But having said that,” he continued, “our No. 1 priority is jobs, and it’s the issue Americans are most concerned about. … We’re going to continue to stay focused on jobs. It’s the issue.”

At a news conference Thursday before leaving for the Memorial Day recess, Boehner held up a red and white card from the House Republican Conference with “JOBS” at the top, and bullet points that include energy independence, lowering health care costs, and simplify the tax code.

     Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/05/amid-probes-boehner-pushes-jobs-91920.html#ixzz2UbIgc3bV

     It goes without saying that his jobs program is pretty feeble stuff-simplifying the tax code for him means making it more regressive; energy Independence simply means more off-shore drilling. and, if he wants to lower healthcare costs he should sign on to ObamaCare which is already doing that. 

    http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/24/obamacare-will-be-a-debacle-for-republicans/

     Indeed, as Krugman's title above says, it is going to be a debacle for Republicans, so great that Arizona's GOP Governor Jan Brewer, has said she will veto all legislation until the GOP state Congress stops blocking the Medicaid expansion. 

     http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/jan-brewer-to-gop-expand-medicaid-ill-veto?ref=fpa

     While his wish list has nothing to do with creating jobs it shows that he's feeling the pressure to talk about jobs and recognizes that the optics are terrible for the GOP. 

     Meanwhile, he thinks he's done a great job and sees the current status quo as a tremendous success. 

      "Critiquing her successor’s record, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes last week that if Boehner “were a woman, they’d be calling him the weakest speaker in history.”

      "Asked to respond to such critics, Boehner said: “You’re missing my style, all right? I don’t need to be out there beating the drum every day. My job as the leader is to build my team, encourage my members, help provide leadership to my members and committee chairs and let the institution work. It doesn’t need the heavy hand of the speaker all over everything.”

      “And this is a Republican House in a Democrat town,” Boehner added. “Democrats run the Senate, Democrats run the White House, and so you think about what we have accomplished, it’s significant. And … there’s no more talk about stimulus spending, no more talk about more new big government programs. It stopped.”

     His definition of success differs from most Americans:

     (Also on POLITICO: Boehner's shrinking power)

     Understand, that for me, the news here is not that Boehner wants to create jobs-nothing suggests it's a very high priority for him-but that he feels the need to pretend which shows that he gets it that scandal mongering can backfire.