House passes John Boehner’s TEENIE WEENIE budget cuts
Today was not a happy day for John Boehner. Not a happy day at all…
First, he had to defend his budget deal to his own caucus, and somehow convince them he didn’t get rolled (he did.) Then he had to round up the votes to pass it — Democratic votes.
From Politico:
A landmark spending bill — putting the brakes on years of steady growth in domestic appropriations — cleared the House on Thursday, but not before Republicans had to reach out to Democrats to save themselves from defeat because of defections on the right.
The 260-167 high-stakes vote posed a first test of whether this Congress can find some middle ground from which to address still more difficult budget issues.
The same Republican divisions could yet be an obstacle in the Senate, but with House passage secured, the joint leadership was hoping to complete action there as well by Thursday night.
John Boehner: big gavel ... small influence?
Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) stepped forward to support the package together with old Democratic allies on the House Appropriations Committee. Across the aisle, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) — who bore the brunt of the dissent as fellow leaders stood silently by — bluntly told his colleagues: “This is the best we could get out of divided government.”
With 59 Republicans defecting, Boehner and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) knew that help was needed, but the dynamics were such that Democrats held back to milk the crisis facing the GOP. Ultimately 81 Democrats — many of whom had planned to do so all week — joined in support, but the majority only cast their votes in the final minute. …
Tea partiers are already threatening to primary any Republican who voted for the super-tiny, $358 million budget shavings. A bit of help for them, from the National Journal, the people they can pass by:
Of the Republicans who voted against the bill, 27 were freshmen, including Rep. Raul Labrador of Idaho. Of the 120 Republican Study Committee members, 51 voted against the measure, include RSC Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio.
Other Republican “no” votes include six possible candidates for higher office, including Reps. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, Jason Chaffetz of Utah, Jeff Flake of Arizona, Dean Heller of Nevada, Mike Pence of Indiana, and Denny Rehberg of Montana.
And here’s the roll call.
April 15, 2011
blog.reidreport.com/2011/04/house-passes-john-boehners-teenie-weenie-budget-cuts/