"I put my -- myself through school working every rotten job there was."

[hedgehog]

John Bohner

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/12/13/transcript-of-john-boehner-interview-on-60-minutes/

Anybody have any idea what jobs Boehner worked? I think he worked as a janitor. Having worked some pretty tough jobs myself, and seen other people working even worse jobs, I have little sympathy for Bohner. He's never done anything to improve working conditions or pay!

[Statistical]

1. If he ever worked some low paying rotten jobs (I will give him benefit of the doubt) ....

the money he is making now must certainly cause amnesia because he has forgoten all about those crappy jobs and the people still struggling while working them.

[Deep13]

2. And I want to make sure no one else will ever be able to afford to do that! nt

[hedgehog]

5. That's for sure! Summer jobs used to pay for a year's tuition...

stop laughing! It's true!

[Deep13]

27. I know it! In the '80s I put myself through school...

...working every rotten job there was. Well by doing that and taking advantage of MA's very generous subsidies of it's state colleges.

[TwilightGardener]

3. I don't doubt it. He reminds me of the kind of little guy who makes it big

and then turns his back on the ones he left behind.

[Jackpine Radical]

18. Pulling up the ladder behind him. (nt)

[thereismore]

4. He is probably lying. He waited tables and calls it "every rotten job there is". nt

[hedgehog]

7. Well, some of those people in Ohio are lousy tippers......

[Rabrrrrrr]

6. and it didn't teach him an ounce of compassion or charity.

"I worked those jobs to get through college, and they sucked, and they should always suck because if I had to go that, everyone in those jobs should have to go through it, especially the folks who aren't driven enough to see those jobs as only temporary. Screw 'em!"

Whereas someone with a heart would say, "I worked those jobs, and they sucked. We should do something to help them not suck so much, because for a lot of people, that's gonna be their life's work".

[kenny blankenship]

8. Janitor, huh? He must have fallen into the Orange-Glo

[old mark]

9. As a very unsuccessful (financially) artist and musician, I worked shit jobs

for most of my life just to support myself while trying to have enough left to be creative.

Boehner thinks he was poor cause his family owned a tavern...I don't know many people who own bars or taverns who don't make money...I believe he swept the floor in his parents bar as a schoolboy, and has been crying about it ever since...What an arrogant asshole!

mark

[Gemini Cat]

25. +1

Every tavern owner I've known has made enough money to be comfortable.
Boner gives tavern owners (and their children) a rotten name.

[guitar man]

29. +1000

You got that shit right. There's nothing like trying to negotiate with a guy who buys a brand new Lincoln every couple of years, and he's telling you that he "just can't afford to pay the band any more because the margins are so slim"

My ass!! :grr:

[old mark]

34. I played in bands since the mid 1960's, and there is one guy who still

has not paid us since then...I think he is dead, so I'm not counting on that money...but I know how you feel! My dad owned a bar in the 1940's...maybe I should run for Congress!


mark

[guitar man]

35. I got a call one afternoon

Club owner about 40 miles away in a panic, the band he had hired for that night had backed out on him and he desperately needed a fill in band. So I negotiated a price and rounded the boys up and off we went.

As it turns out, neither the club owner nor the band that was supposed to be there did a thing to promote the gig so the crowd was a little light to say the least. So I noticed the owner left about midnight and when we were finished, we found out he had left the young lady tending bar the nasty duty of telling us we weren't getting paid.

There was no use yelling at her and he couldn't be reached, so I just pointed at the brand new juke box sitting in the corner and told the guys "load that thing on the trailer".

Got a call about noon the next day, man he was fit to be tied. H said if we didn't bring it back he was going to call the cops and report us for theft and I told him to go right ahead, if he did that I'd swear out a complaint for theft of services.

He grumbled a bit and reluctantly said if we'd bring it back he'd give us our money. I told him I wanted gas money for hauling it back and I wasn't going to unlock the trailer until we got our cash. Game, set,match. ;)

[asdjrocky]

39. I was in a band that took a clubs PA system once.

About the same story as yours, with about the same outcome. To tell the truth, it was pretty common knowledge that every bar owner in the business was a greedy bastard out for what he could get. And they all got enough.

[guitar man]

43. Good for you

" Back in the day" we didn't take a bunch of shit from club owners when they tried to cheat us. Now I see these kids that will just hang their heads and walk away saying " oh well". Totally different mindset I guess.

[asdjrocky]

44. And dude, when they get signed, if someone bothers to sign them-

it's a total shit deal. One thing I think the internet has done is in more ways than one turned musicians into people that just give their stuff away.

Music and art have worth. I guarantee if you've spent any time playing at all there are people who share very speical moments, landmarks really, in their lives that you've been a big part of. That alone has worth, at least a hot supper.

[guitar man]

46. Exactly

These kids now have gotten so used to giving it away online they don't know a good deal from bad.

At 47, with over 30 years playing the small venues, and sometimes not so small, I'm just not inclined to give it away. I'm playing in a cover band these days but we have a group of 5 journeymen that can really lay it down. These days just because the phone rings it doesn't mean I'm taking the gig. We will "leave it parked" unless the money is right. ;)

[asdjrocky]

49. I became the enemy, mobil DJ, full time in 97 and did it til 07.

We would not play an event unless paid in advance and many times, we were more expensive than a 5 to 10 piece band. Guys in Sacramento and the surrounding areas were playing for next to nothing.

I had a great friend and great bass player, Jimmy O'Shea, and he could make more playing jazz in Europe in 3 months than he could make chasing gigs state side for a year. It was tempting.

Also, there's just no place to play live any more. I live in a town of 300,000 and there's like 2 places to see live music.

[guitar man]

51. I don't blame you

You do what you gotta do and god knows playing gigs doesn't pay shit. I played in country bands through much of the 90s even though I hated it , but it paid the bills.

I've had a steady day gig with the same company for the last 10 years so I'm not so desperate anymore. I play what I want when I want now. I sure would like to take a crack at Europe myself before I get too old though...

[old mark]

54. That's the way to do it - If you have been playing long enough and well enough

to actually make money at it, you deserve to be paid! The bar owners LOVE it when they have a full house, sweating and drinking and dancing, but they can't spare a small percentage for the people who made it possible?
The bands get enough abuse without getting stiffed for their rightful pay... I remember one place that had a "dressing room" that was actually a tiny bathroom with an overflowed toilet and a half inch of stinking water over the whole floor...Our guitarist cut out a big STAR out of colored papar and hung it on the door...

Shit, this is enough to make me hate Boehner right here if I didn't already.

mark

[old mark]

53. I knew several bar owners who retired in their 40's, but I NEVER knew a musician

who was able to do that, unless he was Tod Runtgren...Boehner gets zero sympathy as a "working man" from me.

mark

[asdjrocky]

55. Really good point Mark.

That, or they retired with some bucks and bought a bar. I don't know any poor bar owners.

[CC]

10. He acts like his working his way through

college is something unique. Hell in his generation it was more common than not and was doable. There are still a lot of people working their way through college and it is a hell of a lot harder to not only make enough money but to find work to start with. No reason for him to cry about it. I get so sick of that and hearing how poor they were, his parents owned a bar for gawds sake. Things might of been tight but that more to the choices his parents made than any other outside influence from the little I have learned of him. The key thing is his parents had choices, many people don't.

[laughingliberal]

37. +1000 nt

[onethatcares]

41. back in his folks day,

the bar probably made pretty good money with all the Union workers coming in after shift. Hell, I worked a job in Ludens candy factory in PA in 1970 and we used to go to the bar across the street for lunch (3 quick drafts for .25) No one said a word about it.

[EC]

11. Yeah, his father's bar

the usual jobs of cleaning etc. until he was old enough to tend bar...I'm sure his father was a real slave driver...at least the way he crys about it he must have been - I'm thinking his dad was an alcholic wife and child abuser (like I've seen so much of around here)

[Gormy Cuss]

12. The hell with that --- he was a JFK Democrat before he made millions? Bullshit.

No JFK Democrat would think that paying taxes on enormous wealth was wrong.

[JuniperLea]

13. According to the Steph Miller Show peeps...

He worked at his father's bar. I would have loved a bar job!

[CatWoman]

15. maybe that's where his problems with alcohol began....

[JuniperLea]

20. That thought crossed my mind too...

Alcoholism is genetic in many cases... I wondered if his father was the alcoholic. He wouldn't be the first one to run a bar, that's for sure!

[Mz Pip]

14. Well, bully for him.

That's hardly qualifies him for sainthood. Most students these days work to offset the costs of tuition.

How this makes him special is beyond me.

[booley]

16. He graduated College in 1977. Lets think about that.

Boner graduated in 1977. He took 7 years so he started in 1970. (duh)

Which from my rough estimate means he paid about a third to a quarter of what an equivalent education would cost today. (Average college tuition doubles about every 9 years)

Not counting also the fact that wages have been largely stagnant. Which means if he did this today, he would have to work those same jobs for much the same pay but work three or four times as much. (And sill not let his grades suffer)

So I can perfectly believe he worked to support himself through college and didn't need public assistance. Though he would have been qualified for the GI Bill, I don't know if he used it or not. In the 70s that was still possible to do.

However, as one who had to do the same thing in the 90s, I know this was impossible to do without some kind of public help back only 10 years ago and today it's even more impossible.

So even if Boner is not lying, he's still wrong.

[CC]

45. He was only in the Navy for

8 weeks. I doubt he would of qualified for the GI bill.
I don't doubt he paid his way through school just that the work was so hard unless as another poster wondered, his father was abusive.


BTW from 1978 - 1981 I worked as a bartender at a cheap drinks bar and made plenty of money. It was also one of the most fun jobs I ever had so I have even less sympathy if that is how he paid his way through school.

[hedgehog]

17. The jobs I've worked in order: babysitter, house maid, clerk,

project engineer, maintenance supervisor, warehouse supervisor, production supervisor, onion sorter, drafter.

I've worked for good bosses and real sickos, days, nights, week-ends and holidays. No tears here, not even when I worked sorting onions!

[Bluerthanblue]

19. what is "a rotten job"?

I think this statement itself stinks.

Who is he to look down his nose on anyone?

The PAY may be rotten, but what the hell?

[meow mix]

21. bad is... dishwasher, dog kennel, fence pole digger.

his jobs were on the easy side.

[hedgehog]

22. Hell, my husband says that's the kind of stuff he does around home

on his day off!

[LeftinOH]

23. If he describes a paying job as "rotten" it may say more about him than the job. n/t

[hedgehog]

24. BINGO! I knew something was bothering me, but couldn't put

my finger on it! Thank you!

[Bluerthanblue]

26. well said-

I agree.

[emilyg]

28. Not to defend him but

family of 11 - 1 bathroom. That alone would make me cry.

[Bluerthanblue]

33. funny thing, that-

I just read a quote by his brother "Bob" who used that nasty word when talking about this very thing:

"You had to learn how to compromise because you only had one bathroom," Bob Boehner said.



http://abcnews.go.com/WN/american-dream-john-boehner-set-house-helm/story?id=12048868&page=1

Maybe this could explain why he has such a hard time "playing well with others".

[emilyg]

42. Thanks for link.

[walldude]

30. If what he says is true it makes him an even bigger asshole

if he had it so tough he certainly doesn't show it. I see no empathy for anyone from this jerk.

[riderinthestorm]

31. 3 jobs. Helped in his parents bar, as a janitor and as a newspaper delivery boy.

That's nowhere near "every rotten job there was", nor does it even come close. It's insulting actually.

[Bluerthanblue]

32. it should make people question his 'credibility'- but

somehow I'm not sure that people who support him pay attention to what he really says.

:shrug:

[quaker bill]

36. So did I.

So what? Is this supposed to qualify me for something special? I do think I would be a better Speaker of the House than Boehner, but I don't think the lousy jobs have much to do with that. I certainly would have preferred doing it on someone else's dime, but no one offered (except the army, and I wasn't interested).

[asdjrocky]

38. His family owned a fucking bar.

Trust me, he did just fine. I worked in the music and the nightclub and entertainment industry long enough to know the owner of the bar does just fine, it's everyone else they screw most of the time.

Too many times I've had bar owners try to cry poor or skip out when it comes time to pay for the show.

[spanone]

40. he worked in his dad's bar, where he also learned to drink, i suspect

[proud2BlibKansan]

47. Tanning booth tester

[H2O Man]

48. I laid septic lines

and shoveled cow manure to put myself through college. I consider Bohner lower than than the wastes I was dealing with.

[SoCalDem]

50. Wasn't most of that work at a FAMILY owned bar?

and at least Old Johnny-Boy went to school at a time when a part time /summer job would PAY FOR the next semester.

[madmom]

52. I was in my 40's when I worked as a janitor so is that better or worse?