John Boehner Says He Has No Clue What Defense of DOMA Will Cost
Budget-minded House Speaker John Boehner said he had no idea what the House's legal defense of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) would cost when asked about it on Capitol Hill yesterday, the Washington Blade reports:
During a news conference on Capitol Hill, Boehner said he doesn’t have information on the expenses for defending DOMA — including the cost of any private attorneys — when asked by the Washington Blade about these expenses as well as any planned oversight on these costs.
“I do not have an estimate,” Boehner said. “But we were placed in a position where we were in effect allowing the administration to determine the constitutionality of a bill that passed the United States Congress because they were unwilling to defend it. I don’t think the House had any choice but to take the position that we were going to defend the work that the Congress — and only the courts are in the position of determining the constitutionality of any bill.”
Said Michael Cole-Schwartz of the Human Rights Campaign: "Given that a majority of Americans oppose DOMA and would rather see the Republican leadership tackle jobs and the economy, it’s not surprising that he won’t come clean on this or a number of other unanswered questions about the cases."
Boehner announced the House would be defending DOMA on March 9.
April 18 is the deadline for the House to move to intervene in one of the pending cases challenging DOMA: Windsor v. United States. Earlier this week, lawmakers sent a letter to Boehner demanding a status report on the House plans to defend the disciminatory act.
does anyone really think they will do it?
it was all posturing to woo the base and tear at obama
I bet they had forgotten all about the issue till questioned on it. The R;s had wrung all the demagouging out of it that they could and now on to the next thing to demagogue on
Posted by: mstrozfckslv@yahoo.com | Apr 8, 2011 11:20:27 AM
I think if they want to hire lawyers to defend DOMA they should have it taken out of their paychecks and not from taxpayers money.
Posted by: Alan | Apr 8, 2011 11:39:32 AM
Quite an incompetent speaker this guy is. He has no clue period!
Posted by: NY2.0 | Apr 8, 2011 12:05:48 PM
Could have left headline as jut "Boener has no clue."
So all that fuss about defunding NPR? All the money we desperately needed to save? Yeah. In an interview on NPR last week, about the air campaign in Libya, they pointed out, "well, Neil, I hate to tell you, but at $1 million per Tomahawk missile, the money they saved from NPR was spent in Libya in about 45 minutes."
In Arizona, the Republicans gutted our health care system, ACCHS, removing funding for transplants. Two people have already died as a result. Yet their own pension funding - 5 times that amount - was never touched. We voted a one cent sales tax to fund education because the legislature wouldn't do it. So they blew that money at one shot on a $500 million give away for corporate taxes, and just slashed K-12 and university funding.
Boener, if you can't afford NPR, you can't afford to defend this monstrosity.
Posted by: Craig | Apr 8, 2011 12:08:05 PM
John of Orange has no clue about most things.
Still passing out those checks on the floor of the house-Johnny boy?
Posted by: Nick | Apr 8, 2011 12:09:23 PM
Where are the jobs Boner?
Posted by: Bubba | Apr 8, 2011 12:35:02 PM
dems tried to pass an amednment the other day that said all congress men and women would not accept their $174,000 a yr paychecks if their is a gov shutdown. ALL repubs voted against it so the dems have decided to donate all their checks during the shutdown to charity or send them back to the treasury per Barbara Boxer on msnbc the other night
Posted by: mstrozfckslv@yahoo.com | Apr 8, 2011 12:44:12 PM
if the repuks take their money during a government shutdown it will show them for what they really are. money grubbing opportunists .
they are using the fear of the shutdown to push their social agenda. teaparty = nazis party only in kakhi and polo shirts instead of brown shirts.
Posted by: walter | Apr 8, 2011 1:17:19 PM
The Republicans are using the debt problem to push their social agenda (plain and simple).If the debt were the issue, the last thing you would defund would be planned parenthood.
Posted by: PLAINTOM | Apr 8, 2011 2:10:23 PM
hi, I'm orange.
Posted by: EO | Apr 8, 2011 2:48:43 PM
Keep your fingers crossed that the Dems can keep the GOP focused on social issues. That's the goal. That way, come the campaign, Dems can point to how out of touch the GOP was while Dems were working on the economy.
In fact, call GOP senators and representatives, pretend you support them, and demand action on conservative social issues. Distract them and they'll lose. Americans only give a crap about those issues (and increasingly less so) when they have homes, jobs, and nothing else to worry about.
The government shutdown is another GOP maneuver and, hopefully, will blow up in their faces like it did in 1995. The money involved is meaningless in the scheme of a federal budget the size of ours.
Posted by: Paul R | Apr 8, 2011 3:56:38 PM
Doesn't matter what it costs. Defending DOMA is far more important than funding Medicaid.
Posted by: wimsy | Apr 9, 2011 10:59:00 AM
Boehner has a good answer. Makes sense to me. If there was a law protecting sodomy, and a US President didn't like the law, he/she could just ignore the law.
What people and reporters don't like is that it is almost impossible to trick the Speaker of the House, Boehner, into saying something that can be used against him or those Senators and Reps. who voted for DOMA. Sure, one or two believe DOMA should be overthrown, but to do it is a totally other story.
There, Pelosi, you have the answer: Don't know. Do you know how much it would cost the Feds to give 1000 benefits to married same-gender couples of homosexual behavior? (A lot more than defending DOMA, which was supposed to be done anyway bu the Department of Justice). You guys write pretty web pages, but lack Content...
Posted by: Little Man | Apr 9, 2011 10:35:10 PM
Actually, the headline could simply read, "John Boehner Has No Clue," and still be completely accurate.
Posted by: Mike | Apr 10, 2011 12:12:27 PM