Another Banner Week for Speaker Boehner's Dysfunctional House of Representatives

It's yet another banner week for Congressional Republicans who've done nothing but cause more dysfunction, obstruction and distraction under their so-called ‘New American Congress.'  This speaks for itself:

Huffington Post – House Republicans Want To Block Predatory Lending Protections For American Troops

House Republicans are pushing legislation to block predatory lending protections for American soldiers, under pressure from the banking lobby.

GOP lawmakers tucked the deregulation item into the National Defense Authorization Act – a major bill setting the military's funding, along with a number of other controversial terms on Guantanamo Bay and other issues.

Washington Post – House Republicans try to gut a key American principle

The Civil War era's 14th Amendment, granting automatic citizenship to any baby born on American soil, is a proud achievement of the Party of Lincoln.

But now House Republicans are talking about abolishing birthright citizenship.

Judiciary Committee Republicans brought in three experts to testify in support of this extraordinary…and they evidently had to search far and wide for people who would take this view, because they ended up with a bizarre witness: an octogenarian professor from the University of Texas named Lino Graglia…who caused a furor in 1997 when he said that Latinos and African Americans are "not academically competitive with whites" and come from a "culture that seems not to encourage achievement."  He also said at the time that "I don't know that it's good for whites to be with the lower classes."

POLITICO – John Boehner and Jeb Hensarling square off over Ex-Im Bank

A clash between Speaker John Boehner and House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling over the renewal of the Export-Import Bank's charter is bursting into public view, pitting the chamber's top Republican against a favorite of the conservative right wing over an issue that threatens to split the party.

The battle isn't explicitly about policy or politics, it's a power struggle between two senior lawmakers.

Roll Call – House GOP Postpones Votes on VA Spending Bill

House Republicans have been boasting about their early start to appropriations season, but consideration of the very first spending bill…hit a snag Wednesday night.

The Hill – GOP unveils budget deal that seeks repeal of ObamaCare

House and Senate Republicans on Wednesday unveiled a budget deal that aims to torpedo ObamaCare…

Washington Post – Budget plan calls for $194 billion in unidentified cuts to federal workforce

The joint budget agreement calls for cutting that amount over 10 years from programs under the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

…the agreement gives no instructions on reaching the budget savings. Just where the ax might fall remains to be seen.

Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) had no comment on what the budget plan might mean for feds.

POLITICO – House GOP aims for more cuts to urban renewal programs

With Baltimore's troubles as a backdrop, House Republicans are proposing new cuts from urban programs this week even as their budget would add tens of billions of dollars for the Pentagon to get around strict spending caps.

Caught most in the middle is a $55.3 billion housing and transportation measure that is fast becoming the new ground zero in the appropriations wars this summer and a symbol of Washington's retreat from public investments in poor urban neighborhoods like Baltimore's.