Photo: White House
Brian Beutler:
House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) predicted Thursday that the spending cut deal he negotiated with President Obama will pass the House on a bipartisan basis, averting a government shutdown. But he sidestepped questions about how many of his own members will defect because the immediate savings are unexpectedly small.
"It's a bipartisan agreement to cut the spending," Boehner said at his weekly Capitol briefing with reporters. "I believe that it will pass with a bipartisan majority today."
The strong suggestion here is that Boehner will need Democratic help to pass his bill. That's what you'd expect in an era of divided government, and it's what's happened on other key legislation like emergency funding bills, and Patriot Act reauthorization.
The House is now completing its debate on the bill, aftert which it will come up for a vote, so we will soon know if Boehner needs any Democratic votes to get the deal passed. Nancy Pelosi has made it clear that if he does need votes from her side, she thinks he'll get them, but she also said she assumes that he has all the votes he needs from the GOP side.
If Boehner doesn't, and needs Democratic votes, the obvious question is this: what possible incentive do Democrats have to try to please tea party Republicans? If they only thing that they're willing to say is 'no,' then they are completely irrelevant to the process. And they should be treated as such.
(Update/edit: For clarity's sake, I was not arguing Democrats should refuse to vote for the compromise. I think a government shutdown would be a huge mistake. What I meant was that going forward, in future negotiations, the tea party contingent will have proven itself irrelevant.)