John A. Boehner (R-Ohio)

Speaker of the House, 112th Congress (since January 2011)

(Brendan Smialowski/
Getty Images)

Why He Matters

Boehner wrote the book on political survival. After rising from the political dead to become House majority leader in 2006, he claimed the House speakership during the 112th Congress after Republicans recaptured the House majority in the middle of Barack Obama's first term.

Boehner has seen this movie before. As a top lieutenant of ex-House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), Boehner helped write the "Contract with America" that nationalized the 1994 elections and catapulted the GOP into the congressional majority for the first time in 40 years. He became chair of the House GOP Conference, only to lose the job in 1999 after GOP losses in the post-Clinton impeachment elections of 1998.

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At a Glance

Career History: House Minority Leader (January 2007-December 2010); House Majority Leader (2006 to 2007); House Education and Workforce Committee chair (2001 to 2006); House Republican Conference Chairman (1995 to 1999)
Birthday: Nov. 17, 1949
Hometown: Cincinnati, Ohio
Alma Mater: Xavier University, BS, 1977
Spouse: Debbie
Religion: Roman Catholic
DC Office: 1011 Longworth H.O.B., Washington, DC 20515, 202-225-6205
District Office: West Chester, 513-779-5400; Troy, 937-339-1524

Path to Power

Boehner grew up with 11 siblings in a two-bedroom house in Cincinnati. In high school, he played football for the legendary Gerry Faust, who would later coach at Notre Dame.

Boehner was the first in his family to attend college, and he worked as a janitor to pay tuition. He graduated from Xavier University in 1977 and then moved back to Ohio to work at a small plastics and packaging business. He said he became a Republican when he paid more taxes then he earned in his first year at work.

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He had an instant knack for business and was president of Nucite Sales Inc. from 1976 to 1990.

He entered politics in 1981, serving on his local board of trustees and being elected to the Ohio House in 1984.

In 1990, Boehner sought out the Republican nomination for the Butler County-based U.S. House seat. He faced two GOP challengers in the primary: ex-Reps. Buz Lukens, the incumbent who had been convicted of having sex with a 16-year-old girl, and former Rep. Tom Kindness. Boehner won with 49 percent of the vote.

In the House, he joined the "Gang of Seven" Republican freshmen who assailed entrenched Democratic lawmakers for their perks, exposing the names of the 355 members with overdrafts at the House bank. He went on to attack the congressional pay raise and uncovered "dine-and-dash" practices at the House restaurant and illegal cash-for-stamps deals at the House post office.

1994 Elections

These actions endeared Boehner to Republican leaders. He became then-House Minority Leader Newt Gingrich's (R-Ga.) top lieutenant, helping him fundraise and draft the "Contract with America," a sort of national platform for a GOP majority. After Republicans won the majority in 1994, Gingrich pushed Boehner to the chairmanship of the House Republican conference.

Boehner took his role seriously, keeping rank-and-file members on message. In 1998, he sued House ethics ranking member Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) for leaking his taped cell-phone talk with other GOP leaders about how to handle the Gingrich ethics probe to the New York Times. The long legal battle that ensued went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, and Boehner was eventually awarded $1.2 million in damages.

But Republicans lost five House seats in the 1998 elections. In the GOP coup to oust Gingrich that followed, Boehner was ousted for the conference post by then-Rep. J.C. Watts (R-Okla.).

Unfazed, Boehner threw himself into his work on the House Education and the Workforce Employer-Employee Relations subcommittee, passing eight bills that were later adopted as the Republican health-care platform.

In 2000, he won the chairmanship of the highly-partisan House Education and the Workforce Committee. There, he worked with ideological opposites like Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) to pass President Bush's No Child Left Behind bill over the objections of many Republicans.

House Majority Leader

When then-Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) was forced to step down in 2006, House Majority Whip Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) positioned himself as DeLay's successor. But Boehner threw his hat into the ring, presenting a detailed governing manifesto that he had worked on for more than a year. After Democrats reclaimed control of the House in November 2006, Boehner surprised many by defeating Blunt on the second ballot.

As a leader, Boehner has been described as outgoing and less ideological than DeLay, but he is still a fierce partisan and top party fundraiser.

He has been known to send "pride" emails to Republicans when they stick it to Democrats on the House floor and he distributes talking points widely, even to the secretaries who answer phones.

Despite the message discipline, Boehner wasn't able to corral the skeptical GOP rank-and-file into supporting President George W. Bush's $700 billion bank bailout on the first vote. He faced fierce opposition from GOPers like then-Republican Study Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas).

The Issues

Boehner hails from the deeply-Republican 8th district, where industry rules and constituents are very skeptical of free trade. He is a conservative voter, supporting his party 95.8 percent of the time in the 111th Congress.

Boehner has opposed efforts to curtail earmark spending and to outright ban privately-funded travel for lawmakers. In fact, he has flaunted his relationships with lobbyists, flying to events on corporate jets and staying at golf resorts with groups that have a direct stake in congressional issues.

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In one infamous moment, he distributed checks from tobacco lobbyists to other GOP lawmakers on the House floor.

Boehner also has a flare for the dramatic. In summer 2008, he led a Republican rebellion over the House's reluctance to vote on a comprehensive energy package. In the weeks after Congress went on its summer recess, Republicans returned to Washington from all over the country to deliver floor speeches in a darkened chamber on the importance of off-shore oil drilling, which the GOP insisted would significantly lower gas prices.

The Economy

Boehner and House Republicans decided to take a risky stand against popular President Obama when they unanimously opposed the new president's $787 billion economic stimulus package approved in February 2009.

"This bill is supposed to be about jobs, jobs, jobs, and it's turned into nothing more than spend, spend, spend," Boehner said.

In fall 2008, Boehner accepted President George W. Bush's $700 financial bailout plan as unpalatable but necessary.He thought his rank-and-file members would do the same.

But House Minority Chief Deputy Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.), with whom Boehner has long been rumored to have tense relations, and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) proposed an alternative plan that quickly became a rallying cry for House GOPers who objected to such massive government intervention in the economy. At a White House meeting, Boehner tried to craft a compromise by proposing federal insurance on mortgage assets combined with tax cuts on all investment gains. The suggestion was literally shouted down by other attendees.

Many Republicans demanded that the final plan include federal insurance for high-risk mortgages.

Ultimately, Boehner was able to convince enough Republicans to vote with him on the legislation, and kept his leadership post in spite of his role in the bailout vote.

Education

As House Education and the Workforce Committee chairman, Boehner passed a No Child Left Behind bill that included both accountability measures and annual student testing, and extra funding for the poorest school districts.

He shepherded the bill through one of the most partisan House committees by forming an alliance with then-ranking Democrat Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), whom he invited to early meetings on the education overhaul with President Bush. But Boehner opposes extending No Child standards to high schools.

In 2003 and 2004, Boehner helped pass a controversial special-education measure. The law retained requirements that disabilities be taken into account when disciplining students, increased certification funds for schools and withheld state funds if local school districts didn't comply. He also agreed to discretionary increases in spending for special-education funding through 2011.

Boehner worked to pass the Higher Education Act reauthorization, though it didn't make it to President Bush's desk until long after he had given up his chairmanship.

Health-Care Reform

Boehner was a major Republican voice in the 2009 health-care debate. He spearheaded the House Republican effort to oppose the creation of a government health-insurance plan.

Boehner and House Republicans stalled the Democratic legislation for more than a year, and helped promote a populist outcry against what they dubbed a "government takeover" of health care.

Despite their best efforts, the House passed the Senate version of health-care reform without any Republican votes on March 21, 2010, clearing the way for the Senate to approve a package of amendments insisted on by the lower chamber with a simple majority (using a process known as reconciliation).

The $940 billion bill requires most Americans to carry health insurance and requires that insurance companies cover them, regardless of pre-existing conditions. It establishes a national insurance exchange allowing Americans to compare and purchase insurance plans. The bill will be paid for by increasing taxes on well-off Medicare recipients and by taxing premium insurance plans. By the end of the bill's 10-year roll-out, 32 million uninsured Americans will have health coverage and the deficit will be $138 billion lower, the Congressional Budget Office estimated.

The Network

Boehner had an enduring relationship with the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.); the two sponsored an annual dinner to raise money for DC's struggling Catholic schools. He also worked with now-Education and Labor Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.) on enacting No Child Left Behind.

But generally, Boehner works in lockstep with the Republican leadership, including Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) (though their relationship has been fraught with speculation about tension, since the two harbor similar leadership ambitions), Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.).

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