House Republicans Head to Retreat Amid Frustration, Low Ratings

[Purveyor]

By James Rowley - Fri Jan 20 05:01:00 GMT 2012

House Republican leaders have a complicated task as their members gather for an annual retreat: to pull together a caucus that shares in Congress’s low approval ratings and develop a legislative agenda that unifies the party.

The retreat being held at a harbor-front hotel in Baltimore comes one month after U.S. House Speaker John Boehner had to capitulate in a standoff with the Democratic-controlled Senate and accept a two-month extension of a payroll tax cut deal. He is also facing frustration from House freshmen, many backed by the Tea Party movement, who say their party fell short of its goals of slashing federal spending and the government’s debt.

“We have a very long way to go on a lot of issues that are really important,” said Representative James Lankford, a freshman Republican from Oklahoma. He said Congress succeeded last year by not further increasing spending on discretionary programs. “But what we have not succeeded at is stopping the avalanche of debt that is coming on us,” he said in a telephone interview. “That’s the frustration.”

The election in 2010 of 87 House Republican freshmen presented both an opportunity and challenge for Boehner as his party took control. Many of the freshmen have been impatient for quick results and are pushing to move faster. They were at the center of battles last year over legislation to extend government spending authority.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-20/house-republicans-head-to-retreat-amid-frustration-low-ratings.html

[Proud Liberal Dem]

1. I wonder if they invited Obama to speak to them again?

[Wait Wut]

2. Yeah, that went over well!

:rolf:

[PRETZEL]

3. Good,

My hope is that come GE time, many of these freshmen are still frustrated.

They'll have to run for re-election doing backflips to distance themselves from Boehner and the rest of the leadership which has caused their approval ratings to be basically nothing.

Add to that the possibility of having to try and ride the coattails of a R-money (or whomever) presidential campaign and yeah, their worried.

Good.

[madinmaryland]

4. Funny that they chose Baltimore, MD. About as blue of an area as you can get!

They should be able to see Occupy Baltimore from their hotel windows!!!

[lovemydog]

5. they can stop the avalanche of debt

by being truly conservative and cutting our insanely high defense budget.

But those dumb jackasses never even consider it.

[ellisonz]

6. Much crab was consumed...

's

[Tx4obama]

7. Well, the House Republicans were in recess several weeks, they came back to D.C. ...

and they basically did NOTHING for the three days they were back (see here: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2012/index.asp )
all of that 'doing nothing' must have really worn them out so much they had to take another break!
LOL