Boehner Planning For Future, Says He Would Run House Differently

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) told reporters Thursday that if Republicans won the House back in November and if he became Speaker, he would run the House differently than any Democrat or Republican has in the past.

The GOP Leader said that one of his first initiatives would be to invoke transparency legislation that would provide members of Congress and the American people the time they would need to read bills before reaching the floor of the House.

“[This] would give the American people a chance to have their way,” Boehner said. “I think we need to have ‘Read The Bill’ reform, and we need to have it now.”

Optimistically looking into the future, Boehner said that “if we were fortunate enough to be in the majority and if I were fortunate enough to be the Speaker of the House, I’d run the House differently.”

“Read The Bill” reform is legislation that Boehner said would require bills to be displayed online for a three-day review period and “is the first plank of a transparency initiative” Republicans have been pushing for since late 2009.

Boehner said that the Obama administration only believes that they can achieve change by passing giant bills with language that is only fully read on rare occasions.

“For 18 months, we’ve had a government that believes that change is only possible by passing 2,000 page, trillion dollar monstrosities one after another,” Boehner said.

Late Night Health Care Discussions Bring Historic Progress, Says Pelosi

By Courtney Ann Jackson-Talk Radio News Service

Two more House committees have passed versions of health care reform legislation following discussions that stretched into the early hours of Friday morning. That brings the total up to three out of the five House and Senate Committees that have now reported legislation. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) noted in Friday’s press conference that this is the farthest comprehensive health reform has ever gotten in Congress.

The House Committee on Ways and Means chaired by Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) completed their discussion and reported legislation at around 2 AM Friday. The Committee on Education and Labor chaired by Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) had an even longer discussion which lasted till 6 AM and came back at 9 AM to complete the votes.

Pelosi said, “Congress has made historic progress on health insurance reform that will put patients and doctors back in charge and ensure quality, affordable, accessible health care for America’s middle class.”

Pelosi also noted the recent endorsement from the American Medical Association (AMA) of America’s Affordable Health Care legislation.

“This legislation includes a broad range of provisions that are key to effective, comprehensive health system reform...The AMA wants the debate in Washington to conclude with, real, long overdue results that will improve the health of America’s patients.”

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) joined the Speaker and two Chairmen to announce the “historic progress.”

“These next pivitol months will finally be our chance to deliver-and we will,” said Hoyer.

Pelosi: The CIA Misled Me And The American People

By Jonathan Bronstein, Talk Radio News Service

The slow revelation of the use of torture by the Central Intelligence Agency can be likened to a child slowly pulling off a band-aid and crying louder and louder with each hair pulled out of the follicle.

With each removed hair, or revelation in the news, the groans of the American people are only amplified as they want the truth about the CIA’s use of waterboarding and which U.S government officials knew but remained silent.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who was briefed by the CIA on interrogation techniques during September 2002, virulently denied that she knew the CIA employed water boarding.

In fact during a press conference this afternoon, she repeatedly answered numerous questions regarding her knowledge of when the CIA employed enhanced interrogation techniques, like waterboarding. She did this after her press secretary yelled out “last question.” Pelosi even answered as she was walked out of the room.

“I am speaking from my own experience, and we were told that it (waterboarding) was not being used,” said Pelosi emphatically.

Admitting that she was briefed by the CIA in September 2002, Pelosi said that the unnamed agent did not tell her that they used waterboarding, and promised her that the CIA would notify her if waterboarding was ever employed.

Pelosi said that the briefing in 2002 was “ incomplete and inaccurate,” as the waterboarding of terrorist and Bin Laden confidant, Abu Zubaydah, had occurred a month earlier.

After trying to clear her own name, Pelosi attempted to shift the blame to the CIA because it had not been forthright with information regarding the agency’s true actions.

“They (the CIA) misrepresented every step of the way, and they don’t want that focus on them, and they have tried to shift the focus on us (Congress),” said Pelosi.

At the same time of her briefing, Pelosi stated that “The Bush Adminstration was misleading the American people about the threat of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.”

As a result, Pelosi has been a leading advocate in the need for an independent “Truth Commission” that would work “to determine how intelligence was misused, and how controversial and possibly illegal activities, like torture, were authorized within the executive branch.”

However, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) called the “Truth Commission” a “politically motivated investigation into our intelligence agency.”

Boehner feels that such an investigation is “dangerous and wrong.

But if this investigation does occur, he wants to see all the information presented, including what Pelosi knew, when she knew it and what she did about it.

Additionally, Boehner believes that Pelois’s numerous stories have led to “more questions than answers,” and bluntly questioned if the Democrats were not being truthful themselves.

“When you look at the number of briefings that the Speaker was in and other Democratic members of the House and Senate its pretty clear that they were well aware of what these enhanced interrogation techniques were, they were well aware that they have been used,” said Boehner.

Pelosi’s statements have only stoked the flames of suspicion, and her calls for a “Truth Commission,” at least according to Boehner, may lead to some unintended and unwanted discoveries.

Pelosi: The CIA Lied

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) explains how the CIA has repeatedly lied to the American people, whether in Iraq or in regards to torture, and how they are now trying to shift the blame onto the American people. (0:24)

Pelosi: “Recovery Act Is A Gift That Keeps On Giving”

By Kayleigh Harvey and Celia Canon

Today, at her weekly press conference, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi brought good news when she announced that $250 checks were on their way to 50 million seniors and disabled veterans. The check is part of the $700 billion The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which was passed by Congress in February 2009.

“The recovery act is a gift that keeps on giving,” Pelosi said, adding that “Right now these checks are in the mail, and in June the checks for the disabled veterans will be there. Of course we hope that this will continue to stimulate the economy as it helps people make ends meet.

“In the past seven days there’s been good news for consumers and taxpayers. We’ve had the Credit Card Holder’s Bill of Rights which passed at the end of last week. Today we have the Anti-Fraud Bill which contains a Commission to look into how the financial collapse occurred and we can make sure that it doesn’t ever happen again, and tomorrow we will have the Predatory Mortgage Lending Bill. So as part of the President’s initiative to stabilize the economy to protect the taxpayer and the consumer we have three important pieces of legislation,” she said.

Pelosi joked at the end of her address, and said, “Aren’t you glad the first hundred days is over?”