John Boehner isn’t going out quietly. Good for him.

Appearing on CBS New’s Face the Nation, he admonished his Republican colleagues not to succumb to the rhetoric of false prophets. It speaks volumes about the wretched state of our political system in general and the so called Republican Party that the Speaker of the House will now be able to get more done in the month he has remaining in office than he has been able to do previously.

For credit unions, this means that the next month is actually one of those rare windows in national politics when legislation is going to move. The problem is that none of the legislation likely to most benefit credit unions will be part of this rush to get things done. It just isn’t realistic to think that we can see Member Business Lending or Secondary Capital Reform. This is by no means a knock against CUNA or NAFCU, but simply a reflection of the reality that a political system paralyzed by ideological rigidity can only be jolted into action by the biggest players (such as the supporters of the Export-Import Bank) or deal with issues of so little consequence that no one bothers to oppose them (further reform of privacy notice requirements could fall into this category).

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