Writer Round Table: Who was the Biggest Loser in the House in 2013?

 

As 2013 comes to a close, we at PoliticusUSA thought we’d take a look at some of the year’s biggest winners and losers. For this particular column, we asked several writers to give us their pick for the biggest loser in the House of Representatives in 2013. Here are the responses that we received. Enjoy!

 

Sarah Jones: Managing Editor/Columnist

 

The biggest loser in the House was without a doubt the impotent John Boehner – the Weeping Speaker that Couldn’t.  Without Pelosi to do everything for him, Boehner would be nothing and as it is, he is only a little bit something, though he did set historical records for doing nothing and working less time than any other Congress. But ultimately, the biggest loser was the People, thanks to Boehner’s historic incompetence.

 

Justin Baragona: Senior Editor

 

While John Boehner seems like the logical choice, I am going to go with someone who can make anyone else look like a winner: Michelle Bachmann. While every year she’s been in Congress has been marked by her special sort of crazy and weirdness, 2013 marked the year when everything caught up with her. After narrowly holding onto her seat in November 2012, the writing was on the wall that she may not survive another election campaign. That was made even clearer when she became the target of numerous investigations into her use of campaign finance funds. On May 29th, 2013, she announced she would retire from Congress at the end of her current term and not run for reelection in 2014.

 

Hrafnkell Haraldsson: Editor/Columnist

 

The biggest loser in the House I think must be the Speaker of the House, John Boehner. He has not only proven himself completely unable to lead House Republicans but he has done all in his power to prevent President Obama from leading our country. It is ironic that while he has been busily obstructing our president, his caucus has been doing all it can to obstruct him. If ever there was an example of nihilism, it is found in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. It is important to remember that it is upon the leader that the mantle of responsibility rests. While President Obama embraces this responsibility, Boehner has done nothing but dodge it: Excuse-making and responsibility-shirking have become endemic and his lies have become so convoluted that, as Harry Reid says, nobody knows what he is talking about. I’m sure that includes the histrionic John Boehner. I won’t even get into Boehner’s highly unethical involvement in the Keystone XL Pipeline. As Alan Grayson says, Boehner has got to go.

 

Keith Brekhus: Contributing Writer

 

The biggest House loser in 2013, was Florida GOP Representative Trey Radel who got busted for cocaine possession.

 

Dennis Shreefer: Contributing Writer

 

Let’s see, how many Republicans, in wasting the nation’s time and votes, can “Dance on the head of a pin?” That would be the collective body of 232 House Republicans. So, the biggest loser is the Republican Party. Dancing around their unanimous or near unanimous votes for hugely destructive legislation has trivialized the House to the point of hyper-partisan irrelevance. There have been 40 or so votes to either defund the Affordable Care Act altogether or change it in such profound ways as to make the original legislation meaningless. Other votes cast in service to their corporate dance partners include drill baby drill, destruction of environmental regulations, starving the poor, refusal to provide funds to reduce the backlog of veterans’ disability claims, rejecting a Democratic motion to prevent Republicans from voucherizing Medicare, privatizing Social Security and reducing benefits and, of course, the Republican support of any bill that negatively affects women. I could write a thousand paragraphs on this subject.

 

Adalia Woodbury: Contributing Writer

 

With so many Republicans crammed in the Tea Party clown car, there are many contenders.  Paul Ryan stands out as the biggest loser.  He even managed to make co-losing the presidential election in 2012 pale in comparison. Ryan chanted about a “path to prosperity” for the already prosperous with a third world standard of living for everyone else – complete with starving children and people freezing in the streets.

 

Ryan once tried to denounce his Ayn Rand roots by claiming his devotion to Catholicism as real basis of his heartless policies.  But he lost his religious fig leaf when Pope Francis denounced obscene levels of economic inequality and outright disdain for the poor that Ryan personifies. Things got worse when he made a budget deal with Democratic Senator Patty Murray.  Even though more people will freeze to death and go hungry, the budget “compromise” can’t match what sequester would achieve.  By working with Senator Murray, Ryan also committed a second deadly sin in the Tea Party bible.  Thou shalt not get things done in Washington.

 

And there you have it, folks. These are PoliticusUSA’s picks for the House’s loser of the year. Feel free to comment at the bottom and provide us with your thoughts. We will be posting more of these columns over the rest of the holiday season as we say goodbye to 2013.