Exclusive — Ted Yoho Confirms John Boehner Didn’t Have Votes to Get Re-Elected as Speaker

Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot Radio spoke to Florida Republican Congressman Ted S. Yoho, a serious voice for conservatives who believe in limited government, fiscal conservatism, personal responsibility, and free enterprise.

Speaking to Breitbart’s senior investigative political reporter Matthew Boyle, Yoho explained why he signed on as a co-sponsor to Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) bid to unseat Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH).

Yoho said that Boehner spends too much time retaliating against conservatives and has let Obama basically get whatever he wants. 

Yoho confirmed that a vote to keep Boehner as the speaker of the House was postponed last week — because Boehner was having difficulty whipping enough votes to get re-elected as the leader in the House.

Meadows’ resolution hatched a couple months ago when he was  kicked off his committee post on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Meadows, Yoho and others had voted against Boehner in a procedural vote that would have allowed consideration of a measure to grant President Barack Obama so-called “fast track” authority in trade negotiations.

Moreover, Yoho complained that the measures taken by Boehner to repeal Obamacare are symbolic, and that the speaker has not seriously offered a replacement despite the house voting 47 times to repeal it.

On May 3, appearing on Face the Nation, host Chuck Todd asked the speaker if he has a replacement for the much-maligned healthcare act. Boehner responded, “Not yet.” 

Yoho argues Boehners statement “was not factual” and that there have been replacements available for four years. Yoho pointed out that Georgia Congressman Tom Price, M.D. introduced H.R. 2300, the Empowering Patients First Act, that fully repeals Obamacare  — but that Boehner turned his back on bill, among others.

Boyle brought up the point that the Republican establishment told voters that “if we had the majority in the House and the Senate we could get good things done. Now after four years of a majority in the house and eight months of majority rule by the Republicans in the senate as well, have we seen any progress?”

Yoho acknowledged some positive gains, but said that, generally, leadership is timid and often chooses not to propose bills in fear that they will be blocked by Harry Reid and the Democrats. He is disappointed that come September, Congress will be dealing with increasing the national debt limits and fears Republicans — once again — won’t have the backbone to ban raising the debt ceiling.

Boyle said, quoting Rep. Meadows from an earlier interview he had with him, that it seems like “we are living crisis to crisis.” Boyle asked Yoho: Shouldn’t we have dealt more seriously with the debt ceiling by now and have more of a strategy for instance in defunding Planned Parenthood, based on the recent trove of videos depicting baby body part sales?

Yoho said that there were several bills proposed to vote on to defund Planned Parenthood, but leadership decided to go on recess instead.