With opponents like the Democrats, Speaker John Boehner doesn't have to make concessions. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)
Concessions? House Speaker John Boehner doesn't do concessions.
Speaker John Boehner Friday morning told the House Republican Conference that he’s hunkering down on the Keystone XL pipeline provision in the payroll tax holiday bill.
In a closed meeting in the Capitol, the Ohio Republican said if the Senate sends the lower chamber a two-month extension “we’ll amend it and send something back.”
“And what we send back will include Keystone,” Boehner said to applause, according to two sources in the room.
So it looks like he's on track to get that famous 98 percent of what he wanted out of this deal, too. He also promised the Senate he wouldn't try to jam them, get the 2012 budget passed so that government doesn't shut down, and then skip town so the Senate would be stuck with nothing to do but pass the House's larded-up-with-extremist-crap payroll tax extension bill.
We'll see: "Boehner also said he was sending the House home Friday for the holidays."