(Updated – 2:20 pm) Republicans optimistic about Boehner budget vote
By JR Hoeft | Thursday, July 28th, 2011 | PolicyFollowing 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.”
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About the author
Conservative to the core; liberal with his opinion! J.R. has been involved in politics for over a decade and has worked on several campaigns in Hampton Roads. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Chesapeake and the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia. He is also the director of “Blogs United” in Virginia. E-mail J.R.. Follow J.R. on Twitter.
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16 Responses to "(Updated – 2:20 pm) Republicans optimistic about Boehner budget vote"
J.R., that was a great piece of fiction. Your creative writing skills are exceptional. You suggest the House has acted responsibly by perhaps passing Speaker Boehner’s bill, but of course, part of their responsibility is to pass a bill that can pass both houses, and the apparent lack of one democratic vote in the House is a clear signal this is an act of a bizarre nature. But as you suggest, perhaps it can be amended so it raises the debt ceiling without causing another recession. That would be responsible.
Now that the WH has bought up that Republicans are going to ruin Christmas by using the debt ceiling debate, here is a partial first draft of the venerable old poem – “Twas the night before Christmas”.
‘Twas the night before Christmas,
And throughout our great land,
The debt ceiling was being threatened
By the Tea Party brand.
Both Democrats and Republicans argued throughout that cold night,
In hopes that a deal would be struck before midnight.
Most Republicans were nestled all snug in their beds,
While Democrats like Mike Barrett were crying, weeping and trembling with dread.
And John Boehner in his ‘kerchief and Harry Reid with his bat,
Were arguing whether to cut, cap or tax.
When suddenly in the White House there arose such a clatter,
The President was again blaming the rich and trying to make himself matter.
Just a start, but there will be many variations on this poem as the President’s reelection team keeps on trying to link these debates to the 2012 election by pandering ridiculous associations to those who will buy this stupidity. And yes, they think we are just as stupid as they think we are.
Just reading the intro to this forum…”Republicans optimistic about Boehner budget really are. For when you have the majority they have in the House, and you are not sure you own Speaker and Leader’s bill will pass, you reveal the depth of your failure to lead, and of course, to follow. That said, we all know this vote is simply a political ploy; another waste of three days to vote on a Bill that may not even pass the House and will not pass the Senate. Frankly, when you deal with bizarros who use crack thinking instead of actually working in the interest of the citizens, this is the result. Any attempt herein to spin it some other way is simply not working.
mike, the Dems passed Obamacare without bipartisan support. does that make Obamacare bad law?
Well no Kelley, it does not. It would have been preferable to pass health care reform with more support from republicans, who by the way were for health care reform before they were against it, but it passed in the House, the Senate, and it was signed by the President. That’s the process, and if the debt ceiling is to be raised, that will have to be the case as well. For the republican majority in the house to pass a bill it knows has no chance in the Senate is simply political gamesmanship. Of course, long ago, house republicans lost sight of the country’s welfare, prefering instead a policy of defeating the President no matter the cost to the nation and its citizens.
“The Stop Pay for Members Act”… another useless diversion and might as well be called “The Self Spanking for Members Act”. It’s akin to asking a bunch of kids how they should be mass punished. Besides, Scott Rigell doesn’t take a Congressional paycheck.
Mike, “Where’s the Plan?”… Republicans are engaging in political gamesmanship… Mike, “Where’s Obama’s Plan?”… Republicans want to defeat the President no matter the cost to the nation and its citizens… Mike, “Where’s the Democrat’s Plan?”… stay tuned.
Perhaps Tim J you have forgotten that raising the debt ceiling is the responsibility of the Congress. Having appropriated the money, it is the body that must acknowledge the cumulative effect of those appropriations and raise the debt ceiling. Should the Congress fail to do so, it will be a total abdication of their responsibility and a refutation of the debt they themselves have incurred. Now, should they wish to cut the budget by 50%, fine, have at it, but obligations are obligations, and making the U.S. government a dead beat debtor will be on the hands of Speaker Boehner, Leader Cantor, and the republican majority.
Mike, you Democrat extremists are so far stuck in the ditch that you still don’t realize that this isn’t just about raising the debt ceiling, it’s about cutting, capping and balancing the budget to give us a future. The debt limit increase is only a negotiating tool and has become a necessary means to an end for Republicans. For extremist Democrats, the debt limit increase is an open ended means to more of the same. More and more spending doesn’t work, Stimulus didn’t work, increasing the size of Government doesn’t work, pandering to the Labor Unions isn’t working, your jobs programs aren’t working, your green programs are failing, your military adventures are stalemated, the international community is lecturing us about our economy, credit agencies are threatening to downgrade us no matter who you blame and you just want to borrow more money to fund Obama’s failures through the next election. The “deadbeats” aren’t the Republicans; it’s you Democrat extremists, your enablers and Obama who are feeding out of the same polluted ditch where our country is sinking.
mike, good to know that you don’t think Harry Reid & his Dem controlled Senate bear any responsibility for failing to pass the bills the House has sent their way so far. You’ve got the Dem spin down pat.
Those on this forum who would label me a left wing extremist really ought to reflect first on how far out on the right wing extreme they really are. By any rational measurement, my views are decidedly in the middle; I pride myself on being a business oriented pragmatic centrist. With that view, I would never countenance using the act of raising the debt ceiling as leverage; that is, holding the nation hostage to the extreme right wing attempt to ransom our country’s future in order to secure cuts guaranteed to put us back into recession. I see the effects already; businesses have postponed investment, tenants are not acting on expansion plans, the market has reacted, we face downgrading even if we don’t default, and the potential for financial catastrophe and possibly a return to recession. No, I would not do that, and I trust the compromise that comes out of the Senate will avoid these extremes and set us back on a course of recovery, investment, and prosperity. Now I know that even with the warnings from business executives, economists, Governors and Mayors, and financial planners, that the House republicans could care less; they are a classless bunch, high on the egotisism that comes with election, and unaware that you don’t have to destroy our economy in order to reach ones policy goals.
BD is just becoming the Mike Barrett gabfest. Of course he has no requirement for consistency. He’s a leftist. He was thrilled when Obama voted Against the debt ceiling rise; now he’s foaming that the Repubs want what the American people want – a balanced budget and more restrained government.
JR you should have gotten the hint with your other post when the phony “old people” sent their emails.
The thing that bothers me the most is that MB is quite capable of writing a coherent rational post on the odd occasions when he wants to. I assume therefore he’s been giuded by someone at least through suggestion to trash the site since his situational rants are not due to a congenital defect.
lets just call this Mike Barrett’s Bearing Drift.
Oh please, another diversion as the House republicans continue to embarrass even their leadership, which of course is an oxymoron, because leadership must have followship to be effective. So they may get a vote tonight, but a ringing endorsement? No way. It is increasingly clear that the right wing wants default, wants recession, wants our 401ks to tank, wants businesses to fail, wants unemployment to rise, all part of their plan to gain power in the next election. Despite sage advice from their leaders, they could care less, and all the diversions and excuses offered herein, and even the direct condemnation of their actions by true conservatives on this forum, they will not budge. So, is the word bizzaro in your lexicon?
If we were to have a balanced budget amendment what would the government do about the 6 major tornadoes that destroyed 6 cities and killed 546 citizens? I guess we can let Brownie fix it like Katrina
I hope the republican stalwarts herein print out the headline above and save it for posterity; tonight, the Party is dead, murdered by a mob of revolutionaries who refuse to act in the interest of the citizens of the United States of America. I guess Boehner and Cantor, after much tough talk and negotiation, have simply been denied by their own caucus, leaving the Party on the precipice of being blamed for default, recession, higher interest rates, higher unemployment, the devaluation of all asset classes, all in the name of the tea party and the chaos it represents. No matter what the effects of their actions entail, they will bring us all down, based on ideology, not principle.
Mike you shedding a tear for the old GOP ? //grin//
Mike, I’m thinking of possibly writing a book “The Lunatic Ravings of an Insane Blogger” and would consider it an honor if I could make you one of the main characters. There will be political intrigue and chicanery that will be punctuated by lunacy and insane rants which will provide comic relief for the casual reader. Maybe Kirwin could do the screenplay…
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