John Boehner

John Boehner (2009)

John Boehner [ beɪnər ] (* 17th November 1949 in Reading , Hamilton County , Ohio ) is an American politician of the Republican Party and was from 1991 to 2015 Member of the US House of Representatives . From February 2, 2007 he was parliamentary group chairman ( House Minority Leader ) of the Republicans. After his party's victory in the 2010 congressional elections , he was House Speaker from January 2011 until his resignation on October 29, 2015 , when he was replaced by Paul Ryan .

Family, education and work

Boehner was born in Reading in the extreme southwest of Ohio in 1949 as the second oldest of the twelve children of Earl Boehner and his wife Mary Anne (née Hall). The family has Irish and German roots and is shaped by the Roman Catholic faith. Boehner sees himself as strictly Catholic. The father, a World War II veteran, ran a restaurant (Andy's Cafe) in Carthage, a nearby district of Cincinnati . John's grandfather, Andy Boehner, founded the restaurant in 1938 and passed it on to his son.

Like all children of the Boehner family, John had to help out in the restaurant from a certain age. So he learned, as he later said, "to deal with every jackass that walks in the door". Boehner first attended the Sts. Peter and Paul Parochial School, a denominational Catholic school, then Archbishop Moeller High School in Cincinnati, a private Catholic school that only taught boys.

During the Vietnam War he served in the US Navy and was honorably discharged after eight weeks on medical grounds. He then became the first of his family to study at Xavier University in Cincinnati, which he graduated with a BA in 1977 . He then worked as an employee of a retail packaging business, which he later became managing director. In April 2018, it was announced that Boehner was planning to work as a consultant for the country's largest cannabis producer, having previously refused to legalize cannabis use.

He is married and has two daughters with his wife, Debbie.

Political career

Boehner in 1997

John Boehner and George W. Bush at a campaign rally in Troy on September 15, 2003

Boehner (right) meets with Barack Obama during the budget crisis in summer 2011

At the beginning of his political career, in 1982, Boehner was elected to the Board of Trustees (administrative committee) in Union Township (from 2000: West Chester Township ), one of the 13 townships of Butler County , in southwest Ohio, for four years . From 1985 to 1990 Boehner was a member of the Ohio House of Representatives .

In 1990 Boehner won the nomination for the eighth congressional electoral district of Ohio against the Republican incumbent Buz Lukens , who was involved in a scandal with a minor in 1989 and was convicted for it. Boehner prevailed in the November 6, 1990 election clearly against Gregory V. Jolivette of the Democrats. Since 1991 he has been a member of the US House of Representatives for the same constituency without interruption. During his first term in office, he and six colleagues founded the so-called "Gang of Seven", which exposed scandals in Congress. It was about unfair bills of exchange with the house bank, bill cheating in the restaurant and fraud with the house mail. In 1994 he was together with other Republicans under the leadership of Newt Gingrich co-author of the "Treaty for America" ​​written by Larry Hunter for the Republican election campaign. During the tenure of President Bill Clinton , the Republicans managed to win a majority in the House for the first time in 40 years. The Republican MPs then elected him as House Republican Conference Chairman . From 1995 to 1999 he was in this position responsible for organizing and leading the meetings between MPs and supporters. After the poor election results of 1998, the entire party leadership in the House of Representatives lost their offices, Boehner lost his position to JC Watts.

From 2001 to 2006 he was chairman of the standing committee of the House of Representatives on Education and Labor ( Chairman of the United States House Education and Workforce Committee , renamed Committee on Education and Labor from 2007 ).

On February 2, 2006, the MPs elected him Majority Leader of the United States House of Representatives , House Majority Leader for short . H. as chairman of the Republican majority faction. He succeeded Tom DeLay , who was the first United States majority leader to be indicted on September 28, 2005 for misuse of donated funds. Boehner started as an innovator and cleaner, but was considered an outsider. He beat Majority Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri by 122 votes to 109.

After the lost election in 2008, the Republican MPs elected Boehner as their parliamentary group leader ( Republican Leader of the United States House of Representatives, often called Minority House Leader ) on January 4, 2008 . In this function, he was also an ex officio member of the Standing Committee on Intelligence Tasks, also known as the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence .

After the acquired US House election, the Republican deputies 18 November 2010 nominated him unanimously elected Speaker of the House (amtl. Speaker of the United States House of Representatives ). He took office on January 5, 2011 as the successor to the Democrat Nancy Pelosi .

Before New Year's Eve 2012/2013, there was a long tug-of-war between Democrats and Republicans over tax increases (“ fiscal cliff ”) as part of an increasing uncompromising attitude within the US Congress. After Boehner, as spokesman for the US House of Representatives, prevented a vote on the approval of 60 billion US dollars in aid for victims of Hurricane Sandy (and thus the disbursement of the funds) for tactical reasons , the Republican Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie criticized him extremely sharp and called the situation "disappointing and disgusting".

On September 25, 2015, it was announced that Boehner was stepping down from his position as Speaker of the House of Representatives in October. Boehner is only the third US politician - after Andrew Stevenson (1833) and Jim Wright (1989) - to step down from this post. He resigned from office and mandate on October 29, 2015 and later said he had no remorse. In addition to harsh criticism of President Trump , he said he said "Hallelujah" three times a day in the morning and that the current problems were no longer his.

Political positions

He is considered one of the main creators of the Republican Contract With America , which promised a political turnaround in 1994, and the No Child Left Behind Act . In terms of foreign policy, Boehner has always been a strong supporter of the Bush administration and the Iraq war . He supported President Obama's plans for military intervention in Syria . Boehner has a reputation for representing business interests and criticized Obama's tax increase plans. He called the whistleblower Edward Snowden a traitor.

Boehner is known for his explicit political language. During the primaries for the presidential election in the United States in 2016 Boehner spoke against Ted Cruz as candidates and called him the " devil incarnate ". If he becomes the Republican presidential candidate, he will not vote for him. If, on the other hand, Donald Trump, whom he describes as a “ texting buddy ” (roughly: “SMS buddy” - someone with whom you write messages from time to time), becomes a candidate, he can count on his vote.

Web links

Commons : John Boehner  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• On the Issues - Boehner's viewpoints and voting behavior
• Project Vote Smart - Boehner's political positions, biography, voting behavior
• John Boehner in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Anne Saker: John Boehner and the search for grace. In: Cincinnati.com , September 25, 2015.
2. ^ The Life and Times of John Boehner. In: Time Magazine (English, Fig. 1).
3. ↑ John Boehner's rise: Humble beginnings to third in line. In: Cincinnati.com , Nov. 2, 2010.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Todd Purdum: The Audacity of Nope. In: Vanity Fair , October 26, 2010 (English).
5. ↑ Biography ( memento of November 3, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) on the website at the congress.
6. ↑ Tillmann Neuscheler: Republicans hired at cannabis company. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , April 11, 2018.
7. ↑ Jennifer Steinhauer, Carl Hulse: Boehner's Path to Power Began in Small-Town Ohio. In: The New York Times , October 14, 2010.
8. ↑ Martin Klingst: The counter-President. In: Die Zeit , November 5, 2010.
9. ↑ Matthias Rüb : The Patriot. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , November 3, 2010.
10. ↑ Pelosi prevails among democrats In: FAZ , November 19, 2010, No. 270, p. 6
11. ^ Carl Hulse: Taking Control, GOP Overhauls Rules in House. In: The New York Times , January 5, 2011.
12. ↑ Sebastian Fischer: Top Republicans pull off their own people. In: Spiegel Online , January 3, 2013.
13. ↑ "Disgusting": Republican Christie attacks party friends. In: DiePresse.com , January 3, 2013.
14. ^ Veit Medick : Republicans after Boehner's resignation: The Chaos Party. In: Spiegel Online , September 26, 2015.
15. ↑ Mike DeBonis: John Boehner unloads on Trump: A 'complete disaster'. In: The Washington Post , May 26, 2017; Taegan Goddard: Quote of the Day. In: Political Wire , April 13, 2018.
16. ↑ Ansgar Graw: Influential Republicans want to attack Assad. In: Die Welt , September 3, 2013.
17. ↑ http://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/obama-haushaltskompromiss100.html ( Memento from April 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
18. ^ House Speaker John Boehner: NSA Leaker a 'Traitor'. ( Memento of the original from June 11, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: ABC News , June 11, 2013 (English).  
19. ↑ Washington Post, John Boehner just called Ted Cruz 'Lucifer in the flesh.' He does this sometimes , April 28, 2016
20. ↑ US election 2016: Former House Speaker Boehner calls Ted Cruz 'Lucifer'. BBC News, April 27, 2016, accessed April 27, 2016 . 
21. ↑ Stanford Daily, John Boehner talks election, time in office , April 28, 2016, recorded as an audio file