Who is John Boehner?

Who is John Boehner?

In order to better understand the weekly blog updates on what Congressmen John Boehner has done each week, we must first delve into his past to get a better sense of who exactly John Boehner is. Many might know Boehner as the current Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, but what many don’t know is that Boehner has been a dedicated member of the house who has served his district since 1991. Born and raised in Ohio, Boehner was the second youngest of 12 children. Boehner, who has held a strong affection for the State of Ohio, has held his residency in the state his entire life.  After graduating from high school, Boehner decided to take a path that no other Boehner had ever done. He decided he wanted to go to college. It took Boehner over 7 years to graduate from college, as he had to fund his own college education. Many attribute this accomplishment as to one of the reasons Boehner believes in being fiscally responsible and not taking on debt. Boehner was one of the more vocal supporters for massive budget cuts as well as raising the social security age up to 70. Once he received his degree from Xavier University, Boehner became the first person in his family to receive a college degree. While most people might think Boehner is a “career” politician, Boehner actually started out in business and then moved to local politics.

Boehner began by becoming salesmen at a small firm. He quickly rose through the ranks and his hard work and dedication culminated with him becoming the president of the firm. People also contribute this to being one of the reasons Congressmen Boehner is “pro-business.” During that span, as he rose up the ranks within the company, Boehner began to get involved in local politics. After spending nearly 8 years in local politics, he decided to make a run at the U.S. Congress. After winning the seat, Boehner quickly became a well-respected congressman in part to his tremendous work ethic and drive to become one of the top congressmen in the House of Representatives as well as serving his district with pride. Boehner ran with the notion and belief that “every person deserved a voice.” He rose to fame within the house quickly when he was one of the republicans who signed the “Contract To America,” which helped pave the way for the republicans take back the White House. Boehner, who takes “tremendous pride” in serving his district, ran unopposed in elections from 1994 to 2012.

Boehner began to rise up the ranks within Congress when he was selected to become the House Republican Conference Chairman. This position allowed Boehner to gain prominence within the party as well as allow him to gain valuable experience within Congress. Later on in his career, Boehner was elected as the Chairman of Committee on Education and Labor. While he was in command of this post, Boehner was one of the key players who created the No Child Left Behind Act, which was widely popular in the early 2000s. Boehner called this the "proudest achievement" in his two decades of public service. 

After continuing to up the ranks within Congress, Boehner eventual rose to the highest level within Congress and within the Republican Party when he was nominated to become the Speaker of the House in the 2010 mid-term elections when the Republicans regained the majority vote. During this time, America was in its greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression and they looked to Boehner to lead them back to fiscal conservatism. 

After three years at the helm, he was reelected for a second term as Speaker of the House. Although there is a tremendous rift between the two parties that has led to a surge in bi-partisan efforts on both sides, Boehner has had no problem going across the aisle to create solutions.

All in all, this brief background poses a good context into who exactly Mr. Boehner is as a man, as well as who he is as a politician. This newfound background knowledge on Congressmen Boehner will allow us to better understand some of the decisions he makes in terms of the way he votes on issues as well as the policies he champions.