Following a U.S. House Republican Caucus meeting this morning, Congressional sources say that they are “optimistic” that Speaker John Boehner’s budget bill that cuts $917 billion over 10 years, while raising the debt ceiling by $900 billion, will pass this evening – albeit narrowly.
In an interview with POLITICO Thursday, [House Majority Leader Eric]Cantor predicted a “strong vote in the House,” and said Senate Majority Leader Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) hasn’t passed a bill yet. “After today, Harry Reid is going to have two bills,” Cantor said. “He’s going to have the bill that we moved out which is our optimum cut, cap and balance and now he’ll have another bill, which is a compromise bill. There are things in it that he likes and the ball will be in his court at that point.”
The Hill is reporting that unanimous Democratic opposition allows the GOP only 23 defections, yet there are 22 GOP members “leaning” to vote against and there are dozens of undecided.
Should it pass, this will be the second plan offered by the U.S. House: Cut Cap and Balance, and now, the Boehner plan. In the meantime, the Obama administration still has yet to produce a viable plan. And, the Senate plan, offered by Majority Leader Harry Reid, relies on cost savings from troop draw-downs in Iraq and Afghanistan without any other real spending cuts – in other words, it relies on something already anticipated and doesn’t actually address the major spending problems.
The Cut, Cap, and Balance plan was tabled by the U.S. Senate and never brought to the floor for a debate.
“By the end of the day, the House will have passed two debt limit increases and sent them over to the Senate,” said Megan Whittemore, Cantor’s spokeswoman. “The first, Cut, Cap and Balance, is the GOP vision and incorporates all of the spending cuts and reforms that the House believes is needed. The second is compromise legislation, asked for by the President and negotiated with Leader Reid. The House will have done its job, and Harry Reid and the President will now have three choices on how they wish to move forward – Cut, Cap and Balance, the Boehner compromise, or to go past the August 2nd deadline and risk default and the economic ramifications that come with it. ”
Real and immediate solutions – not gimmicks – to manage the debt and control the spending in Washington have been proposed by the U.S. House, but the U.S. Senate continues to bury its head in the sand.
The current Boehner proposal may not be perfect, but it continues to move in the right direction. Let’s hope our Virginia delegation supports it unanimously. And, let’s hope U.S. Senators Jim Webb and Mark Warner stop playing politics with our financial future and get serious about a real bipartisan solution.
Both Webb and Warner, once the Boehner plan passes, should advocate to bring the bill to the Senate floor, debate it, offer amendments, and pass a bill that would then go to conference. It’s time they did something instead of continuing to turn a blind eye.
But, first things first, Boehner’s bill has to pass tonight. We’re running out of time…and Republicans can’t be the only ones with solutions when Democrats control the Senate and the Administration.
Update: Scott Rigell posted this YouTube video about tonight’s vote:
In related news, Congressman Frank Wolf is co-sponsoring “The Stop Pay for Members Act”, introduced late Tuesday by Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN). Wolf said in a release that he hopes congressional leaders are able to come to an agreement so that the nation will not be faced with default, but that if such a situation were to occur, no member of Congress should be paid.
“As leaders we cannot ask people to do something we ourselves are not willing to do,” said Wolf. “I could not in good conscience take a pay check while our nation is in default.”
Also, tomorrow, Congressman Bob Goodlatte’s Balanced Budget Amendment (considered separately from Cut, Cap, and Balance), will come to the floor for a vote.
Goodlatte said:
“While no one wants us to default on our obligations, it would be irresponsible for Congress to extend the limit on the national credit card without taking strong steps to reverse the culture of spending that exists in Washington. Passage of a balanced budget amendment is the kind of institutional reform that is needed to bind the federal government’s hands and cut up its credit cards.”
