i think it is entirely reasonable for the speaker to expect that they could lose the house because they very kelwell could. john boehner allowed the tea party to take over his conference. the republicans fully embraced extremism. she s right. republicans in the congress have taken extremism it a whole new level. just last week house republicans voted to gut $33 billion from food stamp programs. the new york times calls it a callous choice saying quote they will take tens of billions out of programs for the poorest americans. particularly food stamps. along with health care for the middle class. under the proposal, 2 million people would lose all benefits. 44 million people would see reduction in their benefits and 280,000 kids would lose their free lunch meals. no wonder president obama keeps pushing the fairness message.