Boehner Accused of Breaking the Bank on Defense of DOMA

John Boehner

Speaker John Boehner’s insistence on fighting to keep the Defense of Marriage Act is busting his budget, according to a complaint filed by a government watchdog group.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics alleges that Boehner directed payment of $500,000 to the law firm selected to defend DOMA and that not only is that more money than the federal government has to spend, it’s also illegal.

CREW points to the Antideficiency Act, which it says is designed to stop government officials from overspending - violations of which can lead to jail time.

Boehner’s spokesman strongly denied any wrongdoing in a statement to The Hillnewspaper.

“The Speaker expects any cost to be recouped from the Obama Administration Justice Department, which should be defending the law in court,” said Michael Steel. “The ‘anti-deficiency act’ has nothing to do with this situation, as anyone with a basic grasp of the law knows.”

CREW’s executive director pressed the hypocrisy label in her announcement of the complaint.

“Speaker Boehner has vowed to end deficit spending and usher in a new era of government fiscal austerity, warning Americans we need to make do with less. But apparently, the House leadership can continue freely spending money it doesn’t have,” said Melanie Sloan, the group’s executive director, in a statement. “This is yet another case of do as I say, not as I do.”

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Reader Comments

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Name: Ralph Garner
Date posted: 6/17/2011 9:33:53 AM
Hometown: Merritt Island Fl

Comment:
In all of 60+ yearsthese years while Congress has been making a cozy nest in Washington at taxpayers expense, I have never heard of the congressmen volunteering to return their preposterous bonuses and raises. They have given themselves a perfect health plan and a beautiful retirement plan all wrapped in a bouquet of ROSES. One term in congress and afree lifetime of free retirement. Now that a plan made in heaven. Just four years in office and off to a lifetime of sheer bliss. Hah. You stupid Americans put these crooks in power and suffer with high debt, High unemployment. What a selfserving government. Vote for them no questions asked. Shame
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Name: Joseph
Date posted: 6/15/2011 4:38:22 PM
Hometown: Montgomery, AL

Comment:
@Daniel: It doesn't matter how many people show the times that Dubya's DOJ refused to defend laws in court. We're looking at a GOP-controlled House fighting a Democratic President, coupled with the FoxNews propaganda machine to tell everyone how the Dubya decisions were "different" from this case. (Just look how many GOP Senators are *now* saying they have a "right" to block a President's nominees for ANY post and then compare how those same Senators felt when Dems were blocking Dubya's nominees. The GOP mantra then was "everyone's entitled to an up-or-down vote" but now it's "it's our right to dictate who the President gets.") Progressive news sites like MediaMatters and ThinkProgress have enumerated the cases where Dubya's DOJ didn't uphold particular laws but these are always ignored by the (right-wing-controlled) mainstream media.
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Name: Warren J
Date posted: 6/15/2011 11:53:49 AM
Hometown: Omaha, NE

Comment:
A hate born of baser instincts to defend your tribe against the other we should have been over as a society long ago made into law out of fear that their sons and daughters may turn out gay if it's "okay" to be gay. The truth is we are many years away from it being "okay" to be gay even after the law catches up with the reality of our existence and that we too were created equal and deserve equal protection under the law, as the previous civil rights movements have shown us it will still be many many years after the law protects our rights that we will truly be accepted at the big peoples table at the Thanksgiving dinner of life in America.
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Name: Warren J
Date posted: 6/15/2011 11:46:39 AM
Hometown: Omaha, NE

Comment:
Take religion out of the equation and the only defense of DOMA is tradition marriage has traditionally been between a man and a woman for thousands of years. Well you know what else has been a human tradition for thousands of years? Bathing and disposing of human waist in the same water we drink from has been a human tradition for even longer. Should we codify that into law too? DOMA was a thinly veiled attempt to quickly put a waning popular practice of discriminating against Gays and Lesbians into law before popular opinion caught up with the very obvious reality that it is unconstitutional and morally reprehensible for the law to discriminate against gays.
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Name: Ethel
Date posted: 6/15/2011 9:41:07 AM
Hometown: Sacramento, CA

Comment:
Yep, still a fugly little troll.
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Name: Daniel
Date posted: 6/15/2011 8:38:51 AM
Hometown: Missouri

Comment:
It has been mentioned before that other administrations have not defended certain laws for constitutional challenges. One article said W did it six times. Someone please check the facts and write an article detailing these past examples. Do not let the GOP get away with telling lies on this.
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Name: Rob
Date posted: 6/14/2011 11:35:30 PM
Hometown: Boylston

Comment:
Boehner the Bigot Breaks the Bank for Bitchy Bravado
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Name: Rej
Date posted: 6/14/2011 10:56:52 PM
Hometown: Denver

Comment:
How exactly is Boehner going to -- you should forgive the expression -- JUSTIFY getting the $ from the DOJ? It has been stated over and over that the DOJ is not REQUIRED to defend a law -- ESPECIALLY if they don't think they can mount a credible defense. And the reasoning set forth by the DOJ pretty clearly spells out why they don't believe they can. And, I can't tell you how many times I've read stories that quote people who are confusing "defend" with "enforce". I'm quite sure the GOP is capitalizing on that confusion, if, in fact they aren't contributing to it.
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Name: Jean
Date posted: 6/14/2011 7:28:13 PM
Hometown: San Jose, CA

Comment:
I'm sick of paying federal income tax on the imputed value of my partner's medical benefits. If there were an easy way for me to file suit against this IRS ruling which is based on DOMA, I would. What if everyone who was impacted sued and flooded the House with cases to defend? If the DOJ won't defend these, then we would all win, or else the House would bankrupt the country trying to defend the indefensible! If some law firm would provide a template to file such a suit, I would!
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Name: J
Date posted: 6/14/2011 7:03:30 PM
Hometown: New Jersey

Comment:
I do not see how the Speaker of the house can recoup the money from the DOJ, the DOJ's funds were set when last years budget was signed into law. Still the House of Reps entered the US Government into a contract without any clear appropriation of funds. $500,000 will in no way last that long, I would love to know what the current bill is. Another interesting twist is that this contract was for 10 cases, what are they going to do about the one that sprung up today when 20 Federal Bankruptcy Court judges ruled that DOMA was unconstitutional. Id be willing to bet the current bill is approaching the $500,000 cap already.

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