11:50 a.m.: Echoing the president's threat to veto the House proposal, Democratic leaders of the House and Senate railed against the original House proposal. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called out Boehner for not having the votes to pass it; Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid stated that it couldn't pass the Senate.

Having spent two hours talking to House Republicans, my expert investment advice is: Short everything — daveweigel (@daveweigel) October 15, 2013

11:15 a.m.: At a brief press conference following the House Republican caucus, Speaker John Boehner stated that, "There have been no decisions about what exactly we will do." One Tea Party member, Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina, told BuzzFeed's Kate Nocera to "expect changes" to the above proposal before it gets to the floor.

11:10 a.m.: Although that's not how the president sees it. From a statement released to the press:

"[T]he latest proposal from House Republicans does just that in a partisan attempt to appease a small group of Tea Party Republicans who forced the government shutdown in the first place."

Original post

Details of the House of Representatives' counter to Monday's Senate compromise budget-debt ceiling bill have emerged. It's more conservative than the Senate's proposal, but it's a far, far cry from the Tea Party demands that prompted the shutdown in the first place.

Here's what's in each proposal, as it stands first thing Tuesday morning.

House Both Senate A modified version of the Vitter amendment, making members of Congress and the Cabinet (but not their staffs) choose health care plans from the Obamacare exchanges, and pay the premiums themselves

Two-year delay of a tax on medical device manufacturers

Prevent Treasury from using "extraordinary measures" to pay bills if the debt ceiling date is breached Fund the government at September 30 / sequestered levels until January 15

Suspend the debt ceiling until February 7

New income verification requirements for people signing up for insurance on the Obamacare exchanges A one-year delay to the "reinsurance" fee (explained here)

Conference committee to work out a longer-term budget deal (this may be in the final House bill, too)



You'll notice what's missing: Any significant changes to Obamacare. Yes, there's the punitive Vitter thing, though the long-term effects of that apply only to a few members of the government. The various tax changes apply only to particular interest groups — device manufacturers in one case, primarily labor unions in the other. But the push to hold Obama's feet to the fire over a repeal of the Affordable Care Act? Left on the battlefield.

What's more, The National Review's Robert Costa suggests that only the "hardliners" criticized the House proposal during the House caucus. (By hardliners, he almost certainly means people like Reps. Michele Bachmann, Louie Gohmert, Paul Broun, and Steve King.)

Boehner's plan has its critics during open mic, but only from hardliners--not the Group of 150 that's sometime swayed by hardlne Bloc of 50 — Robert Costa (@robertcostaNRO) October 15, 2013

There's still a lot of uncertainty about how this will pass the House and what happens next with the Senate. One possibility is that the House will present the bill as its last, best, and final offer, a take-it-or-leave-it move for the Senate to, well, take or leave.

Hearing House may pass its bill and then skip town. — Ramesh Ponnuru (@RameshPonnuru) October 15, 2013

Interestingly, Boehner may not be whipping votes for the proposal — that is, he may, according to the Washington Examiner's David Drucker, simply bring the proposal to the floor without first gauging reaction from his caucus. But he may not need to worry about it, if this report from Rep. Darrell Issa is correct.

Issa says House Rs opened their meeting by singing "Amazing Grace" this morning. Are unified behind their new plan. — Jeremy W. Peters (@jwpetersNYT) October 15, 2013

Perhaps a better song would have been "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.

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