GOP short of debt-lift votes
Support lacking as November deadline nears.
With default looming, House Republicans can’t find enough members to vote to lift the debt ceiling.
WASHINGTON — Congressional Republicans say they are short of the votes for raising the debt limit and avoiding a first-ever government default, and with barely a week before deadline, there’s no plan on what to do.
It’s a huge problem for House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio and a potential nightmare for his successor-in-waiting, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
GOP leaders promised Friday that the House will act next week — just days from a Nov. 3 deadline. Increasing the government’s $18.1 trillion borrowing cap so that it can continue to pay its bills in full and on time would prevent chaos in the financial markets.
Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew has warned lawmakers that the government’s ability to use accounting steps to pay its bills will run out early next month.
“The debt limit will have to be raised, but we’ve got to do something to deal with it for the future,” said Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. “We’ve got a lot of ideas cooking.”
But in the same breath, House GOP leaders warn that they can’t summon even minimal support for the kind of debt limit increase demanded by President Barack Obama — one that’s free of any concessions. They are still holding out hope for some kind of add-on to make the politically toxic vote more palatable.
Too bad, say Democrats, who point out that Congress passed a debt-limit increase last year without add-ons. And all but two of 188 House Democrats have promised to vote for a so-called “clean” measure, which means it would only take just 32 out of 247 Republicans to produce a winning vote of the full House.
Top House Democrats scoffed when told that GOP leaders say they might not be able to even deliver that number.
“It is inconceivable to me that there aren’t 30-plus Republicans to vote to make sure their country is solvent,” said Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 House Democrat.
The White House on Friday reiterated that Obama will not negotiate with the GOP on the debt limit.
Only 28 House Republicans voted with the Democrats last year to raise the debt ceiling. Because there are fewer House Democrats after last November’s elections, Boehner would have to come up with more Republicans to pass a “clean” debt limit measure.
However, some GOP lawmakers are open to supporting the debt measure despite opposing it last time, among them Reps. Ed Whitfield of Kentucky, Mike Simpson of Idaho and Mike Coffman of Colorado.
“It is the responsibility of the majority to do it,” Simpson said, adding that he’d probably switch his vote from last year, which he cast as he faced a tea party challenger.
“If it had to have my vote, yeah,” Coffman said. “The fact is we have to get it done.”