Almost enough votes to stop the Democrats!
WorldNetDaily
New survey shows only 20 votes in favor or increase
Just weeks from perhaps the most important vote in Congress this year, House Republicans are moving away from approving a hike in the debt limit toward a rejection that will require massive cuts in spending, including program elimination and probably shutdown of long-standing departments of the federal government, a WND survey of members shows.
The latest tally shows 142 House Republicans opposing a raise in the $14.3 trillion debt limit with only 20 favoring it. Another 30 are undecided, while 40 say they would only vote to raise the debt limit with conditions, such as agreement on major cuts, entitlement reform of a balance budget agreement.
The survey included contact by email or phone will all GOP House staffers, or, a reliance on recent public statements by members. It was conducted this week.
"This is a remarkable change and shows Americans still have a chance at stopping the borrowing-and-spending madness in Washington in the near term," said Joseph Farah, organizer of a grass-roots online lobbying effort called the "No More Red Ink" campaign targeted only at House Republicans. "We are effectively moving House Republicans against raising the debt limit – and they are beginning to realize this is where their real power is."
Though there has been little discussion about it in the national media or even on Capitol Hill, House Republicans hold all the cards on denying a debt limit. With control of the House, they need only 218 votes against it to freeze borrowing and force the federal government to begin living within its means immediately.
Farah's campaign is focused on that increasingly real possibility. Republicans are frustrated with the unwillingness of Democrats in the House and Senate and Barack Obama in the White House refusing to concede what they see as any meaningful restructuring of government to deal with skyrocketing debt.
"I hope this survey opens the eyes of House Republicans as well as the rest of the news media to what could be a history-making development in the House," Farah said. "Even though House Speaker John Boehner favors raising the debt limit, his majority clearly does not. Most House Republicans understand why voters gave them the House last November and they are responding to the public pressure they are getting from the "No More Red Ink" campaign.
Farah's "No More Red Ink" campaign has delivered nearly 1 million letters to House Republicans in the last six weeks urging them to buck the pressure from the Federal Reserve, Obama and the Democrats to take a unilateral action to bring spending under control.
"Americans are beginning to realize that House Republicans have all the power to stop this borrowing-and-spending madness with one vote," says Farah. "Why are any Republicans for a debt limit hike? Why would they want to give Barack Obama and the Democrats in the Senate the leverage they need to keep borrowing and spending? And why, in particular, is the House Republican leadership bucking the majority of its own caucus and going along with the majority of Democrats in the House?"
Farah says the dirty, little secret Boehner and the entire Washington establishment don't want Americans to know is that he can – with one vote – enact the most sweeping cuts in federal spending in a century, by simply blocking an increase in the debt limit in the next 30 days.
"If Boehner came out tomorrow in support of this position, the entire bloc of 241 House Republicans would stand behind him," Farah said. "They want him to do it. Most of them support this position right now. They want to say no. And this is the one thing Republicans can do this year that will have a dramatic, historic impact on policy – helping to return us right now to limited constitutional government once again."
Farah calls the vote the most important that will be cast in Congress in the next two years and, perhaps, the most important in the last century.
"The tide is turning against raising the debt limit," says Farah. "When this campaign began, we could identify only two or three solid Republican votes. Now we have identified 142. That's real progress, but we only have two or three more weeks left to make history."
Boehner has repeatedly said publicly that the debt limit will have to be raised, at the same time pushing for spending cuts. Boehner believes failure to raise the debt limit will result in defaults on loan obligations and poses danger to the government's credit rating, an assessment he shares with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
But the Heritage Foundation, CATO Institute and Investors Business Daily have all downplayed the threat of defaults with studies showing the government can still service the interest on the existing debt with tax revenues if substantial cuts in the budget are made.
In response to the survey results, Mike Steele, spokesman for Boehner, told WND: "The speaker has made it clear that while the president is begging us to raise the debt limit without cutting spending, that is obviously unacceptable to the American people. We need to cut spending and institute reforms so that we can keep cutting."
He declined to say whether or not he was surprised by the heavy support for a debt-limit freeze within the Republican House majority. Farah was pleasantly surprised by the results of the survey.
"The press has largely assumed Republican House members would go along with business as usual, but apparently no one has taken an actual head count," said Farah. "This survey strongly suggests there is a very real chance the House will say no to another debt limit increase – an action that would signal a fundamental restructuring of the way the federal government operates."
Since approval of both houses of Congress is required to raise the debt limit, this is one of the very few meaningful actions the Republican-controlled House can take without the consent of the Senate or the White House.
Farah has called it the Republicans' "secret weapon."
If a debt limit increase is not approved, all borrowing by the federal government would stop. It would mandate the biggest cuts in the federal budget in generations – to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars.
In addition to the building opposition from House Republicans, at least one Democrat in the House has signaled his objection to more borrowing – Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y.
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