John Boehner and his top lieutenants had to battle their own party on two fronts. House GOP yanks debt-limit bill

House Republicans delayed by at least a day a floor vote on their package to raise the debt ceiling, the latest challenge facing Speaker John Boehner and GOP leaders as they try to avoid a default on the nation’s debt.

The decision to move the vote to Thursday or beyond came after the Congressional Budget Office reported late Tuesday night that the package Boehner crafted would only reduce deficits by $850 billion, $150 billion short of the speaker’s goal of $ 1 trillion in budget and spending cuts.


House Republican leadership aides were looking for ways to revise the bill to address the shortfall. This could include either lowering the borrowing authority Congress approves, or recommending additional spending cuts. GOP aides said the first option is more likely. The United States is projected to default on its debt Aug. 2, according to the Treasury Department.

Tuesday’s evening drama was the latest challenge facing Boehner (R-Ohio), House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as they push toward what’s considered the year’s biggest vote.

Some House Republicans are already skittish about leadership claims on budget savings following a spring battle over the 2011 budget. CBO found those savings were smaller than claimed by leadership.

Even leading up to Tuesday night’s decision to delay the vote by a day, Boehner and other GOP leaders engaged in a furious last-minute lobbying effort inside and outside the Capitol to pass their debt ceiling package. But the outcome of that vote and its timing remains far from certain, according to Republican lawmakers and aides.

With little or no Democratic support for the GOP plan, Boehner and his top lieutenants had to battle their own party on two fronts.

First, Boehner was hauling members who are undecided or leaning “no” into his Capitol suite for one-on-one meetings, using the time-honored tradition of his office to twist arms and win votes. Boehner had “made progress,” but the CBO scores threw all that progress into doubt.

And outside the Capitol, the top Republican leaders engaged in a PR campaign to win over conservative interest groups and opinion-makers.

The Republican leadership has privately reached out to conservative TV personalities like Sean Hannity and Brit Hume, and Wall Street Journal editorial page editor Paul Gigot, National Review’s Kate O’Beirne, Stephen Hayes of The Weekly Standard, David Brooks of The New York Times, George Will, Laura Ingraham, Mark Levin, and groups such as The Heritage Foundation, among others, have all heard from Republican leadership, including Chief Deputy Whip Peter Roskam of Illinois. And even former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas), the chairman of FreedomWorks and a tea party favorite, got a call from GOP leaders.

The House GOP leadership argument, according to sources who got the call, is that the Republicans believe Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will be forced to take up and pass the House plan — they claim Reid helped negotiate its specifics, which Reid flat-out denies — once an alternative Reid proposal is blocked by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). House GOP leaders are betting that if they get the bill in front of Obama within a week of a possible U.S. default on its $14.3 trillion debt, the president will have no choice but to sign it, despite a veto threat issued Tuesday afternoon by the White House.

But some conservative interests aren’t buying it and seemed to go into overdrive trying to defeat the Boehner plan.The group Heritage Action for America is against the Boehner plan, and the conservative Club for Growth declared it would count this as a “key vote” in its scorecard for lawmakers.

Former Oklahoma Republican Rep. Ernest Istook, who works for the Heritage Foundation, even took to the floor Tuesday night to whip against the bill. Istook told POLITICO he is not a lobbyist, and therefore was allowed to be on the floor to talk about the debt package.

“I come over here every so often to come to just touch base, to see what I can learn about what’s going on and to see friends,” Istook said in an interview, adding that he “[knows] the rules and follows them scrupulously.”

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce — the ultimate establishment Republican group — gave Boehner some relief Tuesday, saying lawmakers should vote for the legislation, and Americans for Tax Reform’s Grover Norquist came out in favor as well.

Yet for all the lobbying by Boehner and company, there were indications at press time that the vote could be delayed because the speaker has not got the 217 “yes” votes he needs.

No official whip counts are available, although some Republican lawmakers estimate 40 to 50 GOP lawmakers are no’s or undecided heading into the dramatic floor fight. Boehner is unlikely to bring such an enormously important proposal to the floor without being completely solid on his whip count, preferring not to roll the dice on this issue. And on Tuesday night, that determination was made.

Regardless of the special interest pressure, Boehner has his work cut out for him inside the House Republican Conference.

More than a dozen House Republicans have come out against the Boehner plan by Tuesday evening, including Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of the influential Republican Study Committee, leaving the leadership with precious little room to maneuver.

Other “no” votes include Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, a leading Republican presidential candidate. And Reps. Joe Walsh of Illinois; Louie Gohmert of Texas; Tim Huelskamp of Kansas; Tom Graves, Paul Broun and Phil Gingrey of Georgia; Jeff Flake of Arizona, Jason Chaffetz of Utah and Connie Mack and Steve Southerland of Florida have all publicly said they would not support the legislation.

South Carolina Sens. Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint both said they were against the plan, which could force all five House Republicans from the Palmetto State to bolt.

“I’ve been around this place long enough to know these deals constantly change,” said Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), a member of the undecided group. “This is not a package that I like, and I believe the speaker when he says that he doesn’t like it. So if it’s something he doesn’t like, I have to ask myself is whether it’s the best that I can get for my constituents back home.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, freshman Rep. Michael Grimm of New York was one of the maybes. Grimm hadn’t been whipped yet — but was expecting a talk from leaders.

“What’s holding me back is that my fear is that it’s not a bold enough plan for the markets, the rating agencies and those that invest in America that we’re serious about our debt problem and our triple A rating will be taken away,” Grimm said. “And that will do most of what this catastrophe we need to avoid now is.”

But many Republicans back the Boehner plan, including some high-profile figures of the 87-member freshman class. Reps. Allen West of Florida and Bill Flores of Texas support the Boehner plan, even after signing a pledge to vote for nothing besides the Cut, Cap and Balance plan, which the House passed but the Senate rejected. West and Rep. Jon Runyan (R-N.J.) stood up at a closed-door Tuesday meeting of House Republicans to praise Boehner.

Republican Rep. Steve LaTourette, whose northeastern Ohio district is only slightly red, said it’s an easy vote for him. He said the Reid bill is “full of crap.”

“People can call this draconian, but Draco would’ve done much worse than that,” LaTourette said.

Asked about conservatives like Jordan, LaTourette said, “My experience with things that don’t bend, they break.”

Republicans held a late Tuesday night meeting, where they discussed the policy behind the Boehner package. And the House Republican Conference is meeting Wednesday morning.

The effort has been bolstered by a new media strategy by Boehner’s office to publicly counter any public statements by Obama during the debt fight. Urged on by House Republicans who want the speaker to challenge the White House’s megaphone, Boehner has taken to live television cameras every single time Obama has — much to the chagrin of the White House. When Obama takes questions, so does Boehner. When Obama makes a speech, so does Boehner.

In addition, Boehner has hired a press secretary whose sole job is to interact with White House reporters.