The Post-Boehner Congress and Washington’s Sense of Dread
By JONATHAN WEISMAN and MICHAEL D. SHEARSEPT. 26, 2015
WASHINGTON — At the White House, a stunned President Obama expressed hope for bipartisan progress as turmoil among Republicans ended Representative John A. Boehner’s speakership.
On Capitol Hill, the conservatives who had again felled one of their leaders rallied to name the terms for the next person to wield the speaker’s gavel.
And on Wall Street, fear set in at the prospect of another showdown over the government’s ability to pay its debt, support its export businesses and simply keep its doors open.
Mr. Boehner’s sudden announcement on Friday that he will step down from the speakership and leave the House on Oct. 30 has thrown Washington into deep uncertainty. His resignation is likely to herald an even more combative stretch in the nation’s capital, emboldening conservatives to defy Mr. Obama on looming decisions regarding spending, debt and taxes.
Some in Congress and the White House hold out hope that Mr. Boehner’s departure and the election of a new speaker will break the fever among conservatives, who have been plotting his downfall for over a year, and grant his replacement a grace period. Mr. Obama promised Friday to “reach out immediately” to the next speaker to begin working on the nation’s problems.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/27/us/the-post-boehner-congress-and-washingtons-sense-of-dread.html
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