At music school. I wrote an article about a gardener who sent his son to college, the first in the family to go to college. The dad made about 21,000 a year Family Income and he was able to borrow six figures for his son. There just was no underwriting. This lender by the way saddled with the new York AttorneyGenerals Office because i dont know of you guys remember, it was called the preferred lender list where you know lenders were in some cases accused of paying bschools for preferential treatment and for them to steer students toward a particular loan products. That was the case with this lender. When you think about, you can sort of understand some of the anger and how a generation may rightly feel very duped in some ways and stock with very little relief at this point now that they are so far in debt. Now a look at the tenure and legacy of House Speaker john boehner. We will show you as much of the washington journal segment as we can until the Richard Nixon 100 Birthday Gala in about half an hour. Host on wednesday here in the washington journal in our last hour taking look at a recent magazine piece. We are joined by robert costa at National Review to talk about a couple of pieces you have written. We will start with the most recent. Boehner the survivor is what you wrote on january 4, 2014. 13, excuse me. Why is he a survivor . Guest john boehner has had a very tough time recently controlling the Republican House caucus is not an easy job. John boehner who grew up in southern ohio worked at his families bar and restaurant come he knows how to corral a lot of people and he had a lot of siblings but even after that experience its a tough job. He struggled to bring plan v to the floor analysis fiscal cliff deal. On the fiscal cliff phot that came from the sanity struggle to get republican votes on it, only 85 republicans voted for. Even eric cantor and Kevin Mccarthy the house number two and number three voted against it so john boehner fits into this new session under a lot of pressure. He deflected a coup attempt on the speaker vote. Only 12 people voted again so he survived that but he struggling to really assert himself as speaker who has all the power he wielded. Host you write about this quiet coup that happened during a public vote for speaker that takes place on the floor and we of course on cspan cover the whole thing. 12 republicans defected them voted for somebody else. What was going on behindthescenes . Guest it was a fascinating scene of for political junkies. I was outside of the house for the day and there were rum things that maybe 20 members perhaps would be trying to revolt against a speaker and to get to a second ballot on the speaker vote he needed 17 defections. 17 defections berkman and nine republicans voted against ban or in voted for someone else and one person voted for the president to people abstain. That was really a show of real discussed among some members about the House Republican leadership, they didnt like plan v in the fiscal cliff is happening that was happening behind the scenes everyone was talking to each other especially the back dentures and the conservatives in the house, nick laney of South Carolina raul and justin amash of the class of 2010. This was a huge class of republicans coming to the house and they really had an assertive presence over the last two years and they were unhappy with boehner but they werent able to get enough votes on their side. Host who organized it . You mentioned some names but how well organized was it . There were more conservatives than that. Talk about that. Guest thats a great point. I was on the phone yesterday with jeff landry. He hes a former member of congress now from louisiana, a real boehner critic and he was trying to organize some public dissent against john boehner. A lot of this started out as a hashtag on twitter during a conservative activist using a hashtag on twitter called fire boehner. Caught fire among a lot of conservative activist and jeff landry, this outgoing congressman in the winter of 2012 notice what was happening on twitter. He called ron meyer and try to create it Public Campaign that within the house jeff landry told me it was very disorganized. Members were very unsure even those who dislike boehner behind the scenes about what to do. Some of them wanted to push for a secret ballot on the house floor. That never happened. With a lot of members were very cautious. If you break with boehner and publicly go against the speaker there perhaps goes your republican dollars in support from the speaker when it comes to fundraising. Your Political Support is going to be under question so its a risky move. Host any rumblings that these people you mentioned, that there will be consequences . Believe me ive spoken to a lot of staff who are nervous. Host about Committee Assignments . Guest subcommittee chairmanships and maybe they wont get them in the future. Boehner has said hes not going to have consequences but theres a feeling in the house if you do go against leadership therell be a consequence down the line even if boehner says theres not. Host what about the speakers relationship with eric cantor and as all of this is happening what is eric cantor doing . Guest a lot of these rebels in the conservative part of the House Republican caucus where courting cancer and willing cantor because if there is a second ballot on the house floor they didnt have the conservative conference of the consensus candidate that they were hoping cantor would step up. That never happened and he was projecting his unity with Speaker Boehner, he wanted no part to do with this. Thats an important point that cantor wasnt involved behind the scenes more publicly in this coup but he did break with the speaker on the fiscal cliff vote. Remember 1990 nuking rich broke with fellow House Republicans leaders in that set him up as a conservative champion in the years to come. To have some kind of revolution but when the next election for speaker happens to republican conference conservatives especiallespeciall y within the caucus will remember how cantor handled the fiscal cliff and that may help them. There were other highprofile republicans who voted it had interestiinteresti ng votes. Paul wright in the house voted for it. Marco rubio on the senate votes no on it. What he think the implications are about . Guest to see there are 2016 implications is a little farfetched but if you love politics you have to look at it. When i was inside of the House Chamber watching the fiscal vote, he really is a power player within the party. One of the most important things he is done since the campaign is aligned himself for Speaker John Boehner and a lot of people did not expect this. One of the the reasons his dumbest and ive spoken people who are close to right write is he wants to make 2013 if budget year. In order to do that he needs boehner support so i dont think ryan will actively break with boehner. Guest we have not heard him paul ryan after the president s contest was over. He has been quiet. Why . Guest its another great question. He hasnt given many interviews and this is a guy who is friendly with many reporters. I dont think he wanted his fingerprints on the fiscal cliff mass. He knew there was never going to be a perfect outcome. Guest what does the 113th congress hole for him . What does 2013 look like for paul ryan . Guest you really get the sense that paul ryan because how he handled the skull cliff, because he went with Speaker Boehner hes in a position to be an influential person because the speaker knows he can trust paul ryan at the crisis moment to stick with them so you will see paul ryan roll out his budget in the spring and continue to articulate what republicans want on entitlement reform. I think you will see paul ryan start to speak up as the debt ceiling approaches and talk about the prosperity needed. Guest marco rubio in the senate, what to expect from him . Guest its amazing he had as much dissent on the fiscal cliff deal. Most republicans voted for the fiscal cliff deal whereas in the house of course it was real mess. I think marco rubio, his whole argument of nice boat to him the night of the voted 2 00 a. M. As he was walking out. He said he needed something to solve entitlement crisis not this piecemeal reform the doesnt that the problem. A lot of people interpreted that as very political, not realistic to have that big package at this time with this divided congress. He is all about these principles and that is why i think we will both continue to hear from rubio articulation of the principles. Host we are talking about the Republican Party and its leadership. Stanley north carolina, republican. Go ahead, youre in the air. Caller yes, thank you for taking my call. Its funny, im glad that this gentleman address this issue with boehner as the survivor. You know, i am a very writes conservative but i try to be openminded. I think the biggest challenge that boehner actually i want to call it the conservative party is that number one we need to put better candidates up and running but number two cobb is that we are you know shooting ourselves in the foot constantly because i think we are frustrated. You know, if we sometimes sell our values down the street so to speak, just to get something done positive and actually get enough power, enough votes to get something through, that person is a traitor and the hardline, they are so fractured that they are never going to get to parts of any of the three parts of government. Its just not going to happen. Guest its a great question because one of the real stories of 2013 is going to be the disarray within the Republican Party especially within the House Republican caucus. They are only one part of government and in a recent interview with the wall street journal Speaker Boehner had a great quote. He said i need this job like you need a hole in the head. That reflects her boehner and a lot of republicans are. They want to get entitlement reform but they are dealing with a liberal president , liberal senate so they are very limited on what they can do. Theyre going to try to move forward but it will be incremental. A lot of conservatives like yourself host cspan democrat as this was a likely that the Republican Party will implode in the next few months, debt ceiling and all . Guest i think the parties going to sir but there may be minor on the debt ceiling. A lot of problem say we should push for many cuts as a part of the deal on the debt ceiling but the president himself has said hes not going to negotiate it also is going to put republicans in a tough position. If they want to push in the present wont play ball they will end up satisfying the activists and not getting a deal so they will have to craft a real strategy perhaps a better strategy than they had on the clip deal. Host texas, independent line, robert your next. Caller yeah, we are not seeing a republic president for another 11 or 12 years. Obama has to finish out his term and hillary is going to take another eight years. Rubio will help for the republicans but he is cuban and the latinos are not going to go for mexicans and latinos. You have to remember the cubans had kennedy and the russians and all that. The latinos will not follow you as they would a real latino. Host what was your first about Speaker Boehner . Caller he needs to have a republican president s to have any help. Guest its a very fair point. One of the real problems right t right now is in the Republican Party and even within the conservative movement. So many people were banking on mitt romney winning the president ial election and so much of what we have seen on plan b in the house on the fiscal cliff and senate and the house is a reaction of not having the power everyone expected or hoped for coming out of the 2012 election so theres a real question on what is moving forward. Your question about hispanic vote is an interesting one because beyond all these fiscal issues immigration is likely to bubble up in 2013 is a major issue. Where republicans going to go on that . Where for instance the senator revealed going to stand . These are all questions that are in the air and there was no answer right now. Host in cat command Morris Rogers introduced a vote on Speaker Boehner she mentioned three pieces of legislation. One of them was Immigration Reform. What did you make of that . Guest Cathy Mcmorrisrodgers was selected number four in the house gop. That was the position boehner had in the 1990s under Newt Gingrich and when Cathy Mcmorris doesnt say anything that john boehner would have said, that means a lot of republicans especially the leadership level or cognitive that they have to do something to expand the party, to reach out to new voters and new demographics and Immigration Reform is a part of that. I think they near and other Republican Leaders want to Work Together to stop some the infighting on immigration but its in the agenda. Host burma you are next from nebraska, democratic caller. Caller thank you. What i would like to say about boehner is, he and cancer are not doing the will of the people of america. From what i see as alec, and the koch brothers. Boehners job is not hard at all. All you have to do is work for the people of america, him and cantor. None other republican jobs are hard. If they would only do the work for the people of america and not for groups like, like i said, alec. Host okay burma, we herger point. Guest i think House Republicans readers would argue that there is a tool or special interest. They have a belief in small government and a belief in lower taxes so that may crisscross with some Interest Groups but i think what youre really going to see is Speaker Boehner and leader cantor grapple with the small power in washington to get something to happen. Publicans didnt want any tax rates to go up. He ended up agreeing that some would go up between 400, 450,000 of the candidate they will have to compromise. The question now is where is the compromise on affair issues and where are they going to work to get something than . I doubt it will stay on the sidelines espousing conservative dogma. I think they want to get the work done but they also want to win that battle. Host explain how boehner had a plan b. He couldnt get his own party behind. That is not waiting. They used to vote in lockstep, no more. Guest plan b was a disaster for the speaker. He wanted a strategy for the fiscal cliff. Plan b was about studying setting the threshold of certain level and having some kind of consensus ultimately on rates but tayner to bring the Senate Fiscal cliff deal that Mitch Mcconnell crafted with Vice President biden. Boehner brought it to the house and brought it to the floor and he got it through with them a credit support. Some republicans are critical that he didnt have enough republican votes but boehner was able to get it through the house relatively on time around the deadline and that is a political host colleen and rutherford new jersey, republican part caller. Caller the endall do well was when governor christie one out there and spoke out and said they didnt return phonecalls and ive been calling banners office all morning. When governor christie comes out on new years saying you were in trouble. He didnt return his phonecalls, but peter king on the house floor, there was a lot of a fuhrer over that sandy bill but secondly, boehner and the leadership which was voted in 2010, that got a lot of folks fascinated. Lets not make the agenda about the republicans. We are falling into the trap of the leftwing media. The agenda is about obama and the senate. Its not about us little republicans. We should not fall into the trap, like we dont know what we are doing. We need to start putting the agenda on them. They need to give us the agenda. Guest i think your anecdote about a sandy bill in the sandy photos and interesting london i think it reflects a lot about how Speaker Boehner operates within the house. For example when the fiscal cliff fiscal cliff deal came over was a tough vote for republicans. What i heard is boehner pulled the sandy relief bill from the floor because he didnt want to force republicans to vote on the spending package so close to set a deal that they didnt like. You cannot with the policies but that seemed to be boehners i did. After he heard from congressman peter king of new york and other about the uproar about the sandy relief will being pulled from the floor he met with peter king the next day at 3 00 and ultimately decided to bring it back to the floor to have an agreement. That shows how boehner works. Hes trying to get his give his Conference Room on a tough vote and at the end of the day he worked with peter king and others to help them get what they wanted. Host 51 billion, they voted before they left on 9 billion of the 60 billiondollar package and there is 51 billion left when they come back. Thats up when i come back next week. Does he have about . Guest i think you will see a lot of republicans going line by line separating what they consider to be stimulus or necessary spending and what needs to happen with sandy relief. That is the cause they Will Champion when they get back, making shirt and make an argument that it isnt all perhaps necessary and what is necessary and ho