John Boehner’s debt plan may be “dead on arrival” in the Democratic-controlled Senate, but how is it faring in the House? Also not well! Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan, the chairman of the far-right Republican Study Committee, said today that “as of this morning … there were not 218 Republicans in support of this plan.” The backlash from House conservatives, many of whom will basically oppose anything short of a Constitutional amendment that bars the government from ever spending money again, is bad enough that it compelled Majority Leader Eric Cantor to tell his caucus that, while “the debt-limit vote sucks,” they need to “stop grumbling and whining.” One prominent member who didn’t need a pep talk is debt-reduction god Paul Ryan, who writes at the National Review this afternoon:
The key phrase here is that the “House Republicans control only one-half of one-third of the federal government.” The Republicans like to trumpet this fact when it suits them, as when deflecting blame for the economy, and ignore it when it doesn’t, as when holding the entire federal government hostage to their every demand.
A Step Forward, but a Long Journey Remains [Corner/National Review]
Cantor tells GOP to ‘stop whining’ about Boehner debt-ceiling plan [Hill]
Jim Jordan: Boehner plan won’t pass House on Republican support alone [2Chambers/WP]
