House Speaker John Boehner (Larry Downing/Reuters)
House Speaker John Boehner has
yet another serious problem in his caucus: a cohort of extremists who are demanding steeper cuts to domestic programs in the budget than agreed to in last August's bipartisans debt ceiling deal, which was intended to stave off a government shutdown and to solidify an agreement that prevented precisely this. At risk, yes again, a government shutdown.
Conservatives are pressing House Speaker John A. Boehner (Ohio) and other GOP leaders to slash 2013 agency budgets below levels set during last year’s debt-limit showdown,arguing that the deal did too little to curb spending.
While that move might impress tea party voters, it would put them at odds with Democrats and even Republicans in the Senate, who are eager to get through the summer and fall without another nasty spending fight that could shut down the government five weeks before voters head to the polls.
In the thick of it is the monster they created in giving their budget committee chair, Rep. Paul Ryan, massive power.
But GOP sources said Ryan is leading the charge for lower spending, and many in the party are worried. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers (R-Ky.) told reporters Wednesday that he is “uncomfortable” lowering the budget caps for next year. Republican sources said a consensus appeared to be developing around $1.028 trillion—which would require appropriators to find an extra $19 billion in cuts.
Ryan also told reporters that "he 'is not really worried' about inviting the threat of another government shutdown," leaving the impression that he's perfectly willing to go there again. He's got enough extremists in the House, still pissed off over the August deal and what they perceive as a cave-in by leadership on the payroll tax cut extension, to back him.
The question is whether they're delusional enough to think it's a good idea just months before an election, when they're already facing unprecedented disapproval numbers with the voting public.
