John Andrew Boehner is an American retired politician who served as the 53rd speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2011 to 2015.
55 Facts About John Boehner
2.
John Boehner resigned from the House of Representatives in October 2015 due to opposition from within the Republican conference.
3.
In September 2016, Squire Patton Boggs, the third-largest lobbying firm in the US, announced that John Boehner would join their firm.
4.
John Boehner was born in Reading, Ohio, the son of Mary Anne and Earl Henry John Boehner, the second of twelve children.
5.
John Boehner's father was of German descent and his mother had German and Irish ancestry.
6.
John Boehner grew up in modest circumstances, sharing one bathroom with his eleven siblings in a two-bedroom house in Cincinnati.
7.
John Boehner started working at his family's bar at age 8, a business founded by their grandfather Andy Boehner in 1938.
8.
John Boehner has lived in Southwest Ohio his entire life.
9.
John Boehner attended Cincinnati's Moeller High School and was a linebacker on the school's football team, where he was coached by future Notre Dame coach Gerry Faust.
10.
Shortly after his graduation in 1977, John Boehner accepted a position with Nucite Sales, a small sales business in the plastics industry.
11.
John Boehner was steadily promoted and eventually became president of the firm, resigning in 1990 when he was elected to Congress.
12.
From 1981 to 1984, John Boehner served on the board of trustees of Union Township, Butler County, Ohio.
13.
John Boehner then served as a member of the Ohio House of Representatives from 1985 to 1990.
14.
John Boehner was all but unknown when he entered a Republican primary that included Lukens and former Congressman Tom Kindness.
15.
John Boehner was re-elected to Congress 12 times, each by a substantial margin.
16.
John Boehner explained that under no circumstance would he step down.
17.
John Boehner said that it was his "proudest achievement" in two decades of public service.
18.
John Boehner was friends with Kennedy, a Catholic, and every year they chaired fundraisers for cash-strapped Catholic schools.
19.
John Boehner campaigned as a reform candidate who wanted to reform the so-called "earmark" process and rein in government spending.
20.
On November 17,2010, John Boehner was unanimously chosen by the House Republicans as their nominee for Speaker, all but assuring his formal election to the post when the new Congress convened with a Republican majority in January 2011.
21.
John Boehner received the gavel from outgoing Speaker Pelosi on Wednesday, January 5,2011.
22.
John Boehner was the first Speaker from Ohio since fellow Republicans Nicholas Longworth and J Warren Keifer.
23.
John Boehner was the first Speaker who has served both as majority and minority floor leader for his party since Texas Democrat Sam Rayburn.
24.
John Boehner was not a member of any House committees during his Speakership.
25.
John Boehner was narrowly re-elected as Speaker of the House on January 3,2013, at the beginning of the 113th United States Congress.
26.
In July 2014, John Boehner moved forward on a lawsuit to force the President to impose penalties on companies who failed to provide health care coverage for their employees.
27.
John Boehner had pressed for legislation to delay this mandate the previous year.
28.
The third law firm selected finally filed the suit in November 2014, after John Boehner criticized Obama's unilateral moves on immigration policy.
29.
On September 25,2015, John Boehner announced that he would step down as Speaker and resign from Congress at the end of October 2015.
30.
John Boehner's resignation took place after Pope Francis' address to Congress the day before, an event considered by John Boehner personally as the highest point in his legislative career.
31.
On October 29,2015, in his final act as Speaker, John Boehner presided over Ryan's election.
32.
In June 1995, John Boehner distributed campaign contributions from tobacco industry lobbyists on the House floor as House members were weighing how to vote on tobacco subsidies.
33.
On January 1,2013, after passing the fiscal cliff deal, John Boehner adjourned the House without passing the $60 million Hurricane Sandy relief bill.
34.
John Boehner responded by removing those who opposed him from influential committees.
35.
John Boehner has been classified as a "hard-core conservative" by OnTheIssues.
36.
John Boehner opposes same-sex marriage, as evidenced by his vote for the Federal Marriage Amendment in both 2004 and 2006.
37.
On May 25,2006, John Boehner issued a statement defending his agenda and attacking his "Democrat friends" such as Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
38.
John Boehner is a signer of Americans for Tax Reform's Taxpayer Protection Pledge.
39.
In June 2013, John Boehner labeled former NSA contractor Edward Snowden a traitor after his leaks went public.
40.
In 2011, John Boehner opposed the NATO-led military intervention in Libya.
41.
On September 18,2008, Congressman John Boehner attended a closed meeting with congressional leaders, then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, and was urged to craft legislation to help financially troubled banks.
42.
That same day, Congressman John Boehner cashed out of an equity mutual fund.
43.
John Boehner has been highly critical of several initiatives by the Democratic Congress and President Barack Obama, including the "cap and trade" plan that John Boehner says would hurt job growth in his congressional district and elsewhere.
44.
John Boehner opposed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and said that, if Republicans took control of the House of Representatives in the 2010 elections, they would do whatever it takes to stop the act.
45.
John Boehner has advocated for an across-the-board spending freeze, including entitlement programs.
46.
John Boehner favors making changes in Social Security, such as by raising the retirement age to 70 for people who have at least 20 years until retirement, as well as tying cost-of-living increases to the consumer price index rather than wage inflation, and limiting payments to those who need them.
47.
In 2013, John Boehner led his caucus in a strategy to hold Defense spending hostage in order to avoid reducing the deficit with revenue increases.
48.
John Boehner made headlines in April 2016 when he referred to Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz as "Lucifer in the flesh" in an interview at Stanford University.
49.
John Boehner has frequently reiterated his feelings, on one account noting how Trump "Incited That Bloody Insurrection", and called Ted Cruz "a reckless asshole who thinks he is smarter than everyone else".
50.
In spite of his critiques, John Boehner confirmed he voted for Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
51.
John Boehner joined the board of tobacco company Reynolds American on September 15,2016.
52.
In 2018 John Boehner joined the board of Acreage Holdings, a cannabis corporation, to promote the medical use of cannabis and advocate for federal de-scheduling of the drug.
53.
In 2019, John Boehner was named chair of the National Cannabis Roundtable, a cannabis lobbying organization.
54.
John Boehner has been known to be emotional and cry during noteworthy events.
55.
On May 15,2016, John Boehner was awarded the Laetare Medal, considered the highest honor for American Catholics, by the University of Notre Dame.