Reach across the aisle Boehner is going to have an uphill battle. Gridlock is good.
Via WAPO
The House Freedom Caucus doesn’t have a Web site. It’s not completely clear exactly who belongs to the group. But in the just-completed fight over Homeland Security funding, it was hard to miss the influence of the insurgent conservative bloc as it clashed with GOP leadership.
The small group of far-right renegades has emerged as the latest embodiment of the internal GOP resistance to House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio); as a general rule, they are unpredictable, opaque and completely unwilling to back down from any fight against President Obama and his agenda.
As the unified Republican majority looks to the next big legislative battles over the debt ceiling, the federal budget and the Export-Import Bank, the Freedom Caucus may be the best illustration of how intra-party discord could dramatically slow the pace of business in this Congress and likely bring it to a complete halt.[…]
The chairman of the group is Rep. Jim Jordan (Ohio), a square-jawed former college wrestling champion who voted for Boehner but also received two votes of his own for the speaker’s job. In a Wednesday interview, Jordan said the caucus has no interest in a new campaign to topple Boehner. He sounded populist notes in explaining the group’s overarching goal.
“We’re here to stand up for those folks who we think get left out all too often,” he said. “Everyday folks. Working Americans.”
Jordan said the group meets at least weekly, typically on the first night when lawmakers get back into town after the weekend. Asked how many members the group has, he estimated there were about 30 but declined to name all of them.[…]
On Tuesday, Boehner, in another jam, caved and gave Democrats exactly what they wanted: a long-term DHS funding bill with no immigration provisions.
“This is an unmitigated loss for conservatives,” said Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.), a founding Freedom Caucus member.