WASHINGTON — House Republican leaders delayed at least until today a white-knuckle vote on legislation designed to ease the nation’s debt crisis, after hours of scrambling in vain to lock down the last votes needed for passage.
Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told reporters shortly before 10:30 p.m. EDT that there would be no vote Thursday night on the bill, which would increase the federal debt limit in two stages in exchange for major spending cuts.
The vote had been scheduled for about 6 p.m. Thursday, but as that hour neared, GOP leaders realized they didn’t have the 217 votes needed to send the measure on to the Senate.
Instead, the House suddenly took up a series of noncontroversial measures, leaving befuddled lawmakers debating whether to rename a post office in Hawaii.
Off the House floor, several Republicans from South Carolina were brought into House Speaker John Boehner’s suite on the second floor of the Capitol. But leaders made no headway with them. Two lawmakers — Reps. Jeff Duncan and Mick Mulvaney — left the office and went into a nearby chapel, telling reporters they were praying over the matter and for their leadership.
Rep. Tim Scott, R-S.C., a liaison to leadership for the freshman class, said he was still opposed to the legislation. He added that leaders have told him they are on the brink of securing the 217 votes needed, but still just short.
“I hear three votes, four votes, it’s very close. They’re only a handful away,” he said.
Scott then joined Duncan and Mulvaney in the chapel. About 45 minutes later, they emerged and headed downstairs to the first-floor offices of McCarthy, where he and Boehner were waiting.
Other Republicans who had gathered there included Reps. Michael Burgess of Texas, Trent Franks of Arizona, Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, Dan Lungren of California, Tom Price of Georgia and Austin Scott of Georgia.
Burgess told reporters he was already a confirmed “yes” vote, but he attended the get-together “to figure out what’s going on, the same as you guys.”
Closed-door caucus meeting
The flurry of activity followed a morning closed-door caucus meeting in which Boehner acknowledged that he did not yet have the needed votes and an afternoon when Republican leaders publicly predicted the legislation would pass the House and move on to the Senate, where Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., vowed again to thwart the bill.
“We’re going to pass a very responsible answer to this crisis,” Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters. “And our solution was put together by the bipartisan leaders here in Congress. There is no reason for them to say no. It’s time for somebody in this town to say yes.”
The speaker, however, declined to guarantee victory, sidestepping a question about how many votes he had by deferring to McCarthy, his top vote-counting lieutenant.
“This conference has moved a great deal in a short amount of time,” McCarthy said.
“Republicans cannot get the short-term Band-Aid they will vote on in the House today,” Reid declared in a Thursday morning floor speech. “It will not get one Democratic vote in the Senate. . . . The economy needs more certainty than the speaker’s proposal would provide.”
The White House also lashed out Thursday against Boehner’s bill, calling it a “political act” that guarantees another “three-ring circus” over the debt limit in a matter of months.
In a final stage of brinksmanship, Boehner is now gambling that he can pass his bill and that Reid will blink under the threat of a potentially calamitous government default that could begin next week.
In the Senate, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., pledged his strong support for the Boehner bill, and his aides strenuously denied that he was working to forge a compromise with Democrats. But McConnell met Wednesday afternoon with Boehner and spoke by phone with Vice President Joe Biden. Meanwhile, discussions intensified on a short-term extension of the debt limit to give lawmakers more time to resolve their differences.
McConnell previously has worked with Reid to set up a fallback plan should Boehner fail in the House. However, believing that Boehner can prevail, McConnell has privately signaled to Reid and the White House that he supports the Boehner legislation and would hold back his 47 Senate Republicans from supporting Reid’s counterproposal.
In a speech that followed Reid’s on Thursday morning, McConnell accused Democrats of supporting all the outlines of the Boehner legislation except for a second vote to lift the federal debt ceiling early next year.
“It doesn’t allow the president to avoid another national debate about spending and debt until after the next presidential election,” he said.
With investors appearing increasingly anxious about whether Washington will meet Tuesday’s deadline for raising the federal debt ceiling, the stock market ticked slightly downward Thursday. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index dropped 0.32 percent.
CEOs write letter to Obama
Early Thursday, chief executives of some of the largest U.S. financial companies — including Brian Moynihan from Bank of America, James Dimon of JP Morgan Chase and John Strangfeld of Prudential — wrote a letter to President Barack Obama and members of Congress urging them to agree on a deal this week.
“The consequences of inaction — for our economy, the already struggling job market, the financial circumstances of American businesses and families, and for America’s global economic leadership — would be very grave,” they wrote.
If McConnell and Senate Republicans balk at any changes in the Boehner bill, each side is then guessing that the other will fold first. Democrats would accuse Republicans of causing the default by filibustering Reid’s bill, while Republicans would blame Senate Democrats for forcing the default by refusing to accept the Boehner bill. If Boehner’s bill fails in today’s possible vote, Democrats say, Reid’s current proposal would ultimately prevail, perhaps with some revisions designed to win bipartisan support.
