Kevin McCarthy says House Republicans are putting 'people before politics.' House GOP-ers: We're responsible

Last week, House Republicans were budget-slashing rebels, taking a hacksaw to federal accounts, undeterred by a Senate sure to ignore their bill, and a president with a veto pen in hand.

But facing the specter of a government shutdown on March 4, being the party that sticks to its guns suddenly looks like a losing line in the national PR battle.


House Republicans hope to recast themselves Friday as the responsible ones in Washington, willing to adopt President Barack Obama’s budget cuts that Senate Democrats have previously embraced. Their case is clear: if the Senate can’t stomach their two-week stopgap bill that cuts $4 billion in federal spending, it’s Senate Democrats, not House Republicans, who are inching the government toward a shutdown.

“If they walk away from this offer, they’re then actively engineering a government shutdown,” said Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.), the party’s chief deputy whip.

Listen to Republicans Friday, and it sounds like the Senate is the stubborn party that the House is dragging along.

“This will be our second action to prevent a shutdown, compared to no action by Senate leaders,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said on a morning call with reporters, adding that he hopes the Senate will “finally join us in these common sense cuts to keep the government running and not continue to play chicken” with a shutdown.

Of course, the bill is not yet released, and Senate Democrats haven’t begun to whack at it just yet. It is yet to be seen if the upper chamber takes interest in the cuts put forth by the GOP, or whether they’ll frame them as draconian — as they have in the past.

Still, Republicans are trying to paint Democrats as the ones unwilling to compromise on all spending cuts. Some Democrats have responded saying in fact they are willing to embrace pared back government spending.

Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said he doesn’t “see how Democrats can’t take these basic steps toward reining government spending in.” The Bakersfield, Calif., lawmaker said the GOP is putting “people before politics” and should Senate Democrats reject the deal, “they’re putting politics before people.”

House leaders have taken proactive steps during this recess week to keep freshmen in the loop on the plan. House Republican leadership had a call with the newly elected lawmakers on Wednesday projecting forward. They’re urging members to keep the narrative on job-creation, cutting spending and not shutting down the government.