"Boehner throws in the towel on debt ceiling fight" by Terence Burlij and Simone Pathe, PBS Newshour 2/12/2014
Excerpt
“You got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ‘em.”
House Speaker John Boehner listened to his inner Kenny Rogers Tuesday, abandoning his search for a debt ceiling compromise that could win favor with his members and forcing Democrats to come up with most of the votes needed to pass an extension with no strings attached.
The passage of a “clean” debt limit hike on a narrow 221-201 vote takes the threat of a default off the table heading into the 2014 midterm elections and allows congressional Republicans to put the focus back on the rocky rollout of President Barack Obama’s health care law. Just 28 Republicans voted with 193 Democrats to approve the measure, which allows the Treasury Department to borrow freely until March of 2015.
The sudden turnabout came after Boehner floated a handful of proposals to raise the debt limit in recent weeks aimed at drawing support from the GOP rank-and-file, with his last pitch including the rolling back of some cuts to military pensions agreed to as part of the budget agreement reached last December. It also marks a sharp departure from the party’s strategy three years ago when Boehner insisted on a dollar-for-dollar match in spending cuts with a ceiling hike.
“When you don’t have 218 votes, you have nothing,” Boehner told reporters Tuesday. “We’ve seen that before, we’ll see it again.”
With House Republicans unable to coalesce around a proposal, and lawmakers running out of work days before the Feb. 27 deadline, Boehner told his members at a closed-door meeting Tuesday morning that he planned to move forward with a clean bill. The Washington Post’s Robert Costa reports on the reaction to the announcement:
The room of Republicans sat up, stunned that Boehner was abruptly shifting away from the leadership’s plan, which had been championed 12 hours earlier at a Monday night meeting in the Capitol basement. But there were no outcries or boos. A few members whispered to each other that Boehner was right, that due to conservative opposition to any hike, he was cornered.
But they didn’t speak up or clap. Boehner just stood there for a moment after he finished, eyed the room, and walked toward his seat. On his way there, Boehner shook his head, then turned to the nearly mute crowd and wondered aloud why he wasn’t getting applause. “I’m getting this monkey off your back and you’re not going to even clap?” Boehner asked, scowling playfully at some tea-party favorites.
Democrats welcomed the development, with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi saying on the floor ahead of the vote that the full faith and credit of the country should be “unquestioned.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid praised Boehner “for doing the right thing,” adding that he hoped “this common-sense approach will continue throughout the year, so we can actually get some things done.”
Reid also signalled his chamber would act on the legislation “as quickly as we can.” A vote could come as early as Wednesday, with lawmakers hoping to leave town ahead of the snowstorm expected to wallop the region beginning later this evening.
Politico’s Manu Raju and Jake Sherman report that Senate Republicans appear poised to allow an up-or-down vote on the increase:
On the Senate side, Republicans were eager to get the matter taken care of, as well. Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn of Texas said it “makes sense to me” to allow the matter to pass quickly with 51 votes. The lower-threshold would let all Republicans vote against the plan, as opposed to the 60-vote filibuster threshold that would require the support of at least five Republicans — and potentially several days — to overcome.
“I know we’ve got a big storm approaching, and flights being canceled, plus I think people feel like it’s inevitable that we’re going to have to act on the debt ceiling,” Cornyn said. “So the question is do you want to do it now? Or put it off?”
Still, there remains some drama over the next step in the Senate, as Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said Tuesday that he would object to a simple majority vote, which would require some Republicans to join with Democrats to pass the measure.
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