President Barack Obama asked Speaker of the House John Boehner and Majority Leader Harry Reid to hold a joint session of Congress on September 7 to correspond with Obama’s major job speech. In a completely unprecedented move, and sort of reeking of an adolescent, Boehner said no.

Later on Wednesday, Boehner responded and asked Obama to move his major speech to September 8 instead of the 7^th. An Obama administration stated that the date had already been worked out with Republican leadership before the announcement was public.

Boehner’s office stated they were given a small advance notice but never okayed the date. “No one in the speaker’s office — not the speaker, not any staff — signed off on the date the White House announced today,” Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck said. The joint session would provide the president with the type of audience that usually accompanies a State of the Union address. Obama wants to shift political discussion to job creation.

A Republican debate is scheduled for the same day, which may be motivating both sides. Asked if the White House chose the date specifically to upstage the Republican presidential field, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney responded, “No, of course not,” adding that the Sept. 7 debate, which will be co-hosted by NBC and Politico, was “one debate of many.”

Speaker Boehner responded to the president in a letter. He stated his reasoning for postponing the speech is because the House officials would not have enough time to pass the resolution and conduct the security measures necessary in order to officially invite the president to a joint session on Wednesday , but apparently that one extra day will help. This seems highly unlikely because Congress has passed massive legislation on shorter notice.

Boehner’s response is not only juvenile; it apparently has never been done before.”The Senate Historical Office knows of no instance in which Congress refused the president permission to speak before a Joint Session of Congress,” said Betty K. Koed, an associate historian for the U.S. Senate, in response to an inquiry from The Huffington Post.

“From 1800 to 1913, presidents chose not to address Congress in person. Since 1913, every president has appeared before Congress at least once during his term(s) in office. Permission to speak in a joint session is given by resolution of the House and Senate, and arrangements are made through the leadership offices of each chamber.”

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The Congressional Budget Office, the non-partisan group that provides cost and data analysis for legislation, released its findings on House Speaker John Boehner’s debt plan. According to the CBO, the Budget Control Act of 2011 would save roughly $850 billion over the course of ten years and just $1 billion in 2012.The findings disappointed Speaker Boehner who said he rewrite the bill in order to save more money.

These savings will not satisfy Boehner’s conservative and tea party base. House Republicans have demanded immediate cuts, however under Boehner’s plan the cuts would not be felt for a few years.

“Americans deserve immediate spending cuts that demonstrate that we are charting a swift path toward a balanced budget. We must implement discretionary and mandatory spending reductions that would cut the deficit in half next year,” read a May 2011 letter from the conservative Republican Study Committee.

“Any move to raise the debt limit must be accompanied by immediate spending cuts and binding reforms so that we don’t continue to push our country down the road to bankruptcy,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said in early May.

Boehner has also made similar statements. Early this month, he rejected a suggestion by Democrats that the majority of cuts be concentrated in future years. But, his new proposal does find the immediate cuts that Boehner himself demanded. Because programs already have budgets and operating costs, spending cuts that take effect immediately are nearly impossible to achieve. A simple fact that Boehner and others from the tea party seem to forget.

“We’re here to change Washington – no more smoke-and-mirrors, no more ‘phantom cuts.’ We promised that we will cut spending more than we increase the debt limit – with no tax hikes – and we will keep that promise,” Boehner spokesperson Michael Steel said in a statement after the CBO analysis was released.

“As we speak, Congressional staff are looking at options to re-write the legislation to meet our pledge. This is what can happen when you have an actual plan and submit it for independent review – which the Democrats who run Washington have refused to do.”

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As the United States is hurling closer to the point of no return on the debt ceiling, President Obama addressed the nation on Monday evening calling the partisan politics a “dangerous game.” Obama criticized the temporary Republicans plan and urged Congress to raise the debt ceiling before the quickly-approaching August 2^nd deadline.

“The American people may have voted for divided government, but they didn’t vote for a dysfunctional government,” the president said in a hastily arranged prime-time speech. He appealed to the public to contact lawmakers and demand “a balanced approach” to reducing federal deficits. “It is a dangerous game we’ve never played before,” Obama said, “and we can’t afford to play it now.”

Obama discussed the importance of raising the debt ceiling and the consequences if the ceiling is not raised in time. “Republican House members have essentially said that the only way they’ll vote to prevent America’s first-ever default is if the rest of us agree to their deep, spending cuts-only approach,” Obama said. “If that happens, and we default, we would not have enough money to pay all of our bills – bills that include monthly Social Security checks, veterans’ benefits, and the government contracts we’ve signed with thousands of businesses.”

The president suggested that Republicans consider raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans. He pointed out that it is not fair to ask for average American families to deal with deep spending cuts while the wealthiest Americans get off scot-free. “Most Americans, regardless of political party, don’t understand how we can ask a senior citizen to pay more for her Medicare before we ask corporate jet owners and oil companies to give up tax breaks that other companies don’t get,” the President stated.

“How can we ask a student to pay more for college before we ask hedge fund managers to stop paying taxes at a lower rate than their secretaries? How can we slash funding for education and clean energy before we ask people like me to give up tax breaks we don’t need and didn’t ask for?”

Arguing that Republican leaders were acting outside of the interests of their constituents, President Obama called on voters to “make your voice heard.”

Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) unveiled a plan earlier on Monday that would raise the debt ceiling temporarily for six months. Obama addressed the plan stating, “In other words, it doesn’t solve the problem,” he said. Speaker Boehner issued his own rebuttal speech immediately following Obama’s address.

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