How “open” will House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH) more-open House of Representatives be? That’s up to John Boehner. At his first press conference as House Speaker Thursday morning, Boehner cautioned that the implementation of the GOP’s transparency promise will be left to his discretion. That includes the Repeal of the Job Killing Health Care Law Act — which will be expedited to the floor without amendment, and will ignore CBO’s warning that it will significantly increase the deficit.
“I do not believe that repealing the job-killing health care law will increase the deficit,” Boehner said. “CBO’s entitled to their opinion, but they’re locked within constraints of the 1974 Budget Act.”
“CBO can only provide a score based on the assumptions that were given to them,” Boehner said.
This is why, according to Boehner, the health care repeal was exempted from the GOP’s new budget rules, and part of the reason that he won’t be allowing Democrats to offer amendments to the bill.
“I promised a more open process,” Boehner said. “I didn’t promise that every single bill was going to be an open bill.”
This isn’t unusual practice in the House of Representatives, where the majority often runs roughshod over the minority, but it conflicts to some extent with the GOP’s transparency pledges leading up to the November election.
“We went through a whole Congress, two years, without one open rule,” Boehner added. “There will be many open rules in this Congress. Just watch.”
