In the House, a likely struggle for 218 votes
By Mike Lillis - 07/31/11 01:59 PM ET
House leaders in both parties have their work cut out if they hope to pass a debt-ceiling package being finalized by the White House and Senate Republicans.
Although the details of the near-agreement are still emerging, early reports indicate it includes contentious provisions sure to alienate both conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats.
If both the left and right flanks of the lower chamber unite in opposition, it would fall to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to forge a more centrist, bipartisan coalition to get the bill across the finish line – just as they did to cobble together support for the unpopular Wall Street bailout in 2008.
It won't be easy.
Boehner, for instance, will have to convince his troops to swallow a deficit-reduction strategy without direct ties to a balanced budget amendment – a non-starter with many conservative members. Last week, Boehner tried to push such a bill through the lower chamber, but, despite a commanding majority, GOP leaders couldn't marshal Republican support to pass the bill.
Even with the addition of the constitutional amendment, the bill squeaked by with just two votes to spare. Twenty-two Republicans' opposed their leadership's bill.
"I need to see the bill mandate a Balanced Budget Amendment immediately," Rep. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said, explaining his "no" vote.
Democratic leaders face the threat of a similar insurrection. Although they were surprisingly successful rallying their caucus behind a debt-limit bill sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Reid (D-Nev.), many liberal members have warned that their support was merely political, and is no indication of how they would vote next time around.
The liberals had hammered the Reid plan for its steep cuts in domestic spending and the absence of new revenues – provisions that reportedly remain in the deal being finalized by President Obama and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
"The Reid plan is the outer depths of hell, but still hell," Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said. "I voted for it to strengthen Reid’s hand so it doesn’t get worse, but it doesn’t mean I’ll vote for it in the end."
Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D) also held her nose to support the Reid bill. But the California liberal also warned that she would oppose any plan that moves further to the right.
"I cannot vote for anything worse,” she said.
Nadler told MSNBC Saturday that 80 percent of House Democrats feel the same way.
McConnell on Sunday indicated the he and the White House are "very close" to sealing a deal to slash deficit spending by up to $3 trillion over 10 years and raise the nation's $14.3 trillion debt limit.
To sweeten the deal for Republicans, Obama has reportedly offered to exclude specific tax-revenue hikes, at least in the near-term. To entice Democrats, McConnell is eying a provision allowing Obama to hike the debt-ceiling through 2012 in order to preclude another debate on the thorny issue before next year's elections.
The Hill