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Boehner: Financial Reform Is 'Killing An Ant With A Nuclear Weapon'

Jillian Rayfield | June 29, 2010, 12:57PM

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House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-IN), Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), and Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA)

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House Minority Leader John Boehner criticized the financial overhaul yesterday, describing the attempt to regulate financial institutions as being like "killing an ant with a nuclear weapon."

In an interview with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Boehner (R-OH) said that the compromise between the House and the Senate is unnecessary, and that what is really needed to prevent another recession is tighter regulation and transparency.

In the same interview, Bohener said that the U.S. should cut Social Security by raising the retirement age to 70, and that because of Democrats "there's a political rebellion brewing, and I don't think we've seen anything like it since 1776."

Late Update: Boehner spox Michael Steel tells Greg Sargent:

It's clear Boehner is not minimizing the crisis America faced -- he is pointing out that Washington Democrats have produced a bill that will actually kill more jobs and make the situation worse.

Comments (15) | Join the Conversation!

georgecs

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June 29, 2010 1:13 PM   

Few things in life are quite as richly satisfying and unintentionally hilarious as listening to someone who has not the slightest grasp on history tossing around the big obvious buzzwords even the morons in the back of the classroom somehow managed to pick up.

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Sniffit

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June 29, 2010 2:55 PM    in reply to georgecs

BTW, raise retirement to 70? so basically take 5 years of SS away from everyone who hasn't reached retirement yet? And these are the same people who were trying to scare every elderly person in the country who forgot to take their Namenda to oppose Obamacare because it would ruin Medicare and Social Security? I'd mail this guy a bag of my very own feces if I didn't think it would get me arrested.

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tiowally

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June 29, 2010 4:02 PM    in reply to Sniffit

Just to make it fair, Congressmen shouldn't be able to draw their substantial pensions (which, I believe, they are eligible for after serving only five years) or receive their gold-plated health benefits until age 70. What's good for the goose ....

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mJJ

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June 30, 2010 12:07 AM    in reply to georgecs

Right, and John Boehner sounds like he just came out of the Pumpkin Patch. The guy is clueless and no doubt has sucked at the Government salary for so long, he forgets that people planned their entire lives around a 65 year old retirement. I would be in favor of deferring until some older age if only people like Boehner would forgo their huge pension for serving in the House you know till they are 75. I mean fair is fair. But what about those of us who already reached past 70 and have had Social security now since we were 65. Golly, Boehner is heartless about Senior Citizens. But if he will take a huge salary hit, I am ready to give back some of my SS retirement benefits. But do not ask anyone who needs every penny of their SS just to eat and have a place to sleep. Of course another thing we might consider is to stop our warmongering all the time and save all that bomb money plus a lot of lives of our servicemen. But never expect Johnny boy to agree to that.

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Sniffit

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June 29, 2010 2:50 PM   

Is it just me or does Cantor, that lying fuckfaced marionette, look like Boehner's adoring wife in the background?

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jsdc007

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June 29, 2010 2:57 PM   

Yes, because the financial meltdown we just had with millions losing jobs and their lifesavings was the political equivalent of an ant.

Stupid orange baboon.

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justaJ0e

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June 29, 2010 10:57 PM    in reply to jsdc007

Yeh.
These are the same nut wads who cried crocodile tears about the OVER regulation of Wall Street and Corporate America in the years leading up to and then even during the financial meltdown. They claimed (and some still do) that these institutions would work best if "self regulated".

Great. We just got to see what happens when you let Corporate greed go unregulated. It took us and most of the rest of the worlds economy with them.
An expensive lesson that should NEVER be forgotten.

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SilenceEqualsConsent

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June 29, 2010 3:42 PM   

Perhaps the most telling part of the interview is something not mentioned here. "Ensuring there's enough money to pay for the war will require reforming the country's entitlement system", Boehner said.

Waging an unnecessary and futile war is more important to the American people than Social Security - at least according to Boehner and the Republicans.

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mrut

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June 29, 2010 4:00 PM   

I'm glad a Republican is conceding that the retirement age has to go up to right Social Security. I don't oppose him on that count. I think we should embrace it and get it done, starting now and raising it gradually.

If he wants to say that the Social Security trust fund was raided to pay for war, I think that's pretty accurate, too. I would add that it was raided to make up for revenues lost with Reagan's and Bush Jr.'s tax cuts.

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mans_best_friend

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June 29, 2010 5:49 PM    in reply to mrut

The retirement age DOES NOT have to go up to right SSI. All that has to happen is that the maximum income subject to the SSI tax needs to be increased. That would put SSI in the black for the foreseeable future.

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farnsworth

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June 29, 2010 9:01 PM    in reply to mans_best_friend

That is true and right and fair.

Therefore it will never ever happen.

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Hobbes83

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June 29, 2010 6:50 PM   

I don't understand why some people think that raising the minimum age for SSI would fix the system. While some people would die before they reach that age, for the most part all you would be doing is kicking the burden down the road because of our ever-increasing life-expectancies.

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Leftflank

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June 29, 2010 11:28 PM   

At least the Great Pumpkin didn't mention Nazis, socialism or Gov't takeover.

He's still an overtanned douche, I'm just sayin'.

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tradeshoes14

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June 30, 2010 11:13 PM   

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gecagecaca

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July 4, 2010 9:14 AM   

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