House Speaker Boehner tries to rally Republicans to his debt plan

 

 

By Rosalind S. Helderman and Felicia Sonmez, Published: July 27

 

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) appealed in unusually aggressive terms to his wavering GOP colleagues in a closed-door meeting on Wednesday morning with just a week left to go until the debt ceiling must be raised or the country will default on its obligations.

At a meeting of GOP House members, the embattled Republican leader told his colleagues, many of whom had vowed to oppose his two-step bill to raise the debt limit that is expected hit the floor as soon as Thursday, to “get your ass in line.”

 

The meeting came as Boehner scrambled to rewrite his legislation the morning after a Congressional Budget Office analysis showed his plan would cut the deficit less than advertised.

In a closed-door meeting for the House GOP Conference in the basement of the Capitol, Boehner worked to rally support from skeptical conservatives, who have been subjected to intense pressure from tea party groups and others who say Boehner’s plan will not impose the kind of structural reform Republicans promised when they took control of the House in 2010.

With few options on the table except the plan advanced by Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), some of those conservatives now seem inclined to finally fall in line behind their leader.

Republican leaders told the group that they need to stay united and rally around the bill. Boehner also said his bill will be rewritten to either cut more from the deficit or to raise the debt ceiling by less than the $900 billion he had proposed earlier this week.

That way, his plan would hew to his promise to match the debt-ceiling hike with spending cuts. Members said leaders did not tell them which approach will be taken with the revisions.

“We’re making progress,” Boehner told reporters after Wednesday morning’s meeting. Asked whether he thought the CBO report had dealt a blow to his plan and whether a vote was still scheduled for Thursday, Boehner declined to say.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said after the meeting that House Republicans “just had a very good conference.”

“Members are rallying around the speaker’s plan, and we’re going forward,” Cantor said. He declined to say whether he thought the plan would pass with the support of Republicans alone, saying only, “We will pass the speaker’s plan.”

There were signs Wednesday that Boehner was having some success at converting wary undecided votes into possible supporters.

After the meeting, several Republicans who had been wavering said they now back Boehner’s revised proposal — in part because they fear undercutting the speaker just days before the Aug. 2 deadline to raise the debt limit.

If the House plan were to founder because of lack of Republican support, it would leave only a proposal by Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) still standing.

Reid’s plan to raise the ceiling by $2.4 trillion would remove the pressure of a possible default from debates about reducing spending in coming months — a far less preferable option, several Republicans said.