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Speaker Boehner extends State of the Union invitation to President.

That's not all he's extending.

By: Moe Lane (Diary)  |  December 14th, 2011 at 01:30 PM  | 

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Speaker of the House John Boehner has formally offered an invitation to the President to give his annual State of the Union address.

As we work together to end this legislative year by advancing initiatives to help Americans struggling a difficult economy, we must also look ahead for new opportunities to put solutions before politics. In the coming year,. Republicans will continue our efforts to create an environment for economic growth and job creation, and we welcome an opportunity to hear your new ideas for working with the Congress. There fore, I am privileged to invite you to deliver an address on the State of the Union on January 25, 2012, before a Joint Session of Congress.

Thank you for your consideration, and I look forward to your response.

You know, I just bet that Speaker Boehner does. Not that Barack Obama dares respond as he would like to; which is to say, with a blistering oath or two.

If you’re wondering why half of Washington DC is chuckling and the other half is muttering, it’s because January 24, 2012 (a Tuesday, by the way) represents the thousandth day that the US government has been without a budget (assuming April 29, 2009 as the start date, and not counting the end date) (H/T to @CuffyMeh for pointing that out). This is, of course, entirely the Democrats’ fault; when in the majority they adamantly refused to pass a budget in order to limit their losses in the 2010 elections (given the 63 House seats and 7 Senate seats the Democrats lost in that cycle, one has to wonder whether that decision was wise). And, of course, since 2011 the Democratic-controlled Senate has notoriously cut and run from passing any sort of budget. Especially the one that House Republicans passed in April of this year.

We will now pause while the Usual Suspects whine about politicians playing political games; oddly, these kinds of complaints always seem directed at the clever ways that shenanigans (particularly Democratic ones) are spotlighted, and never the original shenanigans themselves…

Moe Lane (crosspost)

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COMMENTS

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  • Repair_Man_Jack

    Where are all the adds from the GOP reminding people that we have passed the Keystone XL Pipeline and are just waiting for the Dems to agree? Remind people of how many jobs that the Dems no longer seem to care about creating.

  • wennejunk

    I’m kinda to the point where I seriously doubt few of the GOP actually want any of the things they say they want or vote for.

    I’ve pretty much come to the conclusion that voting for Conservative causes for most of them is merely for campaign materials for their constituents.

    Such materials are conveniently marked up with the notation that the Democratic meanies “…stopped them from getting the bills passed – but we’ll try again next year after you return me to Congress.”

    Either that or its been so long since they actually had a win (like the Army football team over Navy) they’ve forgotten that a win means more than scoring a touchdown – you gotta have more points at the end.

    Yeah, jaded.

  • earlgrey

    that there was an exact date it had to be given. Forgive my ignorance.

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    …and Congress gives the invite. And as this President has long since burned through any lingering consideration that the GOP might have felt towards the man…

  • flguy

    “He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient . . . ”

    From Thomas Jefferon to William Howard Taft, presidents simply mailed or had a courier deliver their state of the union addresses to Congress to be read into the record. Wilson revived the tradition of delivering it in person as a speech (yay for the modern press and radio to get a progressive president to use the speech as a political tool).

    I teach high school government class, and it’s always a good trick question on a test to have a T/F question like: The president must deliver a state of the union speech to Congress each year. False on two counts, heh. :)