House Republicans were meeting earlier today to amend the Senate’s fiscal cliff bill:
A bipartisan plan to avert year-end spending cuts and tax increases slammed into stiff opposition in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, where conservatives argued that it didn’t including any meaningful reduction in spending.
…In a closed-door caucus later Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Boehner presented GOP lawmakers with two options for overcoming an impasse, according to a senior House GOP aide.
One was to amend the Senate bill to include spending cuts and return it to the Senate. The alternative was to simply put the Senate bill to a vote. Early Tuesday evening, Republican leaders were trying to gauge which of the two options had the most support among the party rank and file.
How much in spending cuts? 30 billion.
Pathetic and I think most of the Republicans know it so they have decided to put the original Senate bill up for a vote:
https://twitter.com/passantino/status/286268622412861440
Its unclear if Boehner has the votes to get it passed but any bill that doesn’t include major spending cuts is junk anyhow.
House has finished with its three non-fiscal cliff votes. Just recessed subject to the call of the chair.
But the GOP will definitely grow some balls in the next two months. Related: Lucy totally promises to leave the football on the ground next time.
Friggin incredible. No balls whatsoever.
Update
Source close to whip process tells me that Boehner knows he has enough votes to get Senate deal through w/ Dems, now wooing a few undecideds
— Robert Costa (@costareports) January 2, 2013
Update:
And so it goes:
At 11 p.m. ET, it’s a done deal. 257-167, with Democrats providing most of the votes. The Dems split 172-16, Republicans split 85-151. Boehner didn’t come close to satisfying the “majority of the majority” rule, which leaves him on thin ice for Thursday’s Speaker vote. At least he didn’t hide, though: He voted yes tonight, as did Paul Ryan, much to Team Rubio’s delight. Meanwhile, the rest of the leadership team — i.e. Eric Cantor and Kevin McCarthy — voted no, although Cantor waited until the bill had 218 votes to register his meaningless disapproval.
Hard to believe we might have the same leadership in the next Congress as we did for this process, but then not long ago it was also hard to believe we’d have the same leadership in the White House and the Senate in 2013 as we had in 2012. And yet here we are.
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