Sources: GOP leaders split on budget "blueprint"

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) raised objections to an abbreviated alternative budget "blueprint" released today -- but were told by House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) they needed to back the plan, according to several Republican sources.

The argument, coming a week before the full House and Senate are scheduled to vote on the budget, underscores the minority party's woes in a mounting unified opposition to President Obama's $3.6 trillion FY2010 budget proposal.

Ryan, the ranking Republican on the budget committee, plans to introduce a detailed substitute amendment for the Democrats' spending plan next Wednesday -- and still intends to do so.

But he and Cantor were reportedly told by Boehner and Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-Ind.) they needed to move more quickly to counter Democrats' charge they were becoming the "Party of No," according to House GOP staffers.

The 19-page document, prepared by Pence's office, was distributed two days after President Obama criticized Republicans for trashing his detail-crammed 142-page budget outline without producing a credible alternative.

“In his egocentric rush to get on camera, Mike Pence threw the rest of the Conference under the bus, specifically Paul Ryan, whose staff has been working night and day for weeks to develop a substantive budget plan," said a GOP aide heavily involved in budget strategy.

"I hope his camera time was gratifying enough to justify erasing the weeks of hard work by dozens of Republicans to put forth serious ideas," the person added.

"It's categorically untrue," said Pence spokesman Matt Lloyd. "Cantor as well as Ryan and the rest of the leadership have been part of this process for weeks. They not only signed off on it, but their staffs helped edit it."

Ryan told POLITICO that he didn't feel thrown under any buses and downplayed the disagreement.

"The problem is that somewhere along the line, someone got the mistaken impression that we were going to roll out a budget alternative today," he said. "What we all signed off on was a preview—the real [alternative] is coming next week."

Still, when he was asked what purpose today's preview served, Ryan directed me to Pence's office: "You've got to ask the conference this question, I can't answer that question."

The leadership appeared united a press conference this afternoon, with Pence and Boehner holding copies of blue-jacketed budget outline as photographers clicked away.

But no sooner were copies distributed, than Democrats began blasting away, gleefully pointing to its lack of specific numbers -- except for a proposal to cut tax rates on people earning $100,000 from over 20 percent to 10 percent.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs dismissed it with a joke saying the swirling pattern on the cover reminded him of a windmill.

"It took me several minutes to read it," Gibbs quipped, saying Obama was "absolutely" disappointed it didn't include more details.

"I think the 'party of no' has become the party of no new ideas," he added.

Speaking on MSNBC, Pence promised greater detail "in a couple of days, adding, ""This is the broad outline today."

Cantor and Ryan were reportedly "embarrassed" by the document -- believing it was better to absorb a week of hits from Democrats than to be slammed for failing to produce a thoughtful and detailed alternative.

The goal, aides say, was to make Obama's team eat their words by producing a "killer" alternative with far less spending and greater tax cuts.





Glenn Thrush is senior staff writer at Politico Magazine.