Kevin McCarthy noted leadership is 'still working' for votes for the GOP's debt bill. | JAY WESTCOTT/POLITICO GOP has no backup plan after vote

There’s a narrative gaining traction in Washington as a debt crisis looms: House Republican hard-liners might soften their stance once they’ve gotten a vote on their Cut, Cap and Balance proposal.

But if that’s the case, the conservatives aren’t in on the plan.


While such a vote would usually be viewed as a chance to win some political cover for those who later agree to a more moderate deal, the idea of seeking cover out of a symbolic vote is foreign — if not outright offensive — to the new breed of House Republicans.

The debt-limit disunity has grown so dire in Republican circles that party leaders were still rounding up votes Monday night on the conservative movement’s pet cut, cap and balance plan. The decision to appease conservatives could backfire on party leaders if the bill fails, leaving them without a demonstration of the conference’s position.

The Cut, Cap and Balance bill, which President Barack Obama threatened to veto on Monday, would slash funding for government programs, implement spending caps that opponents and supporters have called “draconian” and condition a $2.4 trillion increase in the debt ceiling on congressional approval of a constitutional amendment requiring the federal government to balance its budget. The bill, introduced last Friday, didn’t go through a single legislative committee — a tactic Republicans vowed to avoid.

But process seldom gets in the way of politics on Capitol Hill.

House Republicans said the plan puts them on offense — on the record in favor of a plan that allows for a debt-limit increase — rather than in a position of arguing that they can’t pass anything. Some conservatives said getting a vote on their favored approach to a debt-limit increase, win or lose, won’t affect their position on later legislation. That includes an emerging proposal by the top two Senate leaders, Democrat Harry Reid of Nevada and Republican Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, that would give the president the authority to raise the debt ceiling.

“Everybody talks about something else, but nobody writes it down on a piece of paper. We have two weeks to go; it’s time to giddyap,” said Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), the author of the Cut, Cap and Balance bill.

The bottom line: Nothing yet — not the McConnell plan, not simply getting a vote on the cut, cap and balance measure — has moved the center of the House Republican Conference toward a deal.

“This is not political posturing,” one senior House Republican aide said of the Cut, Cap and Balance approach. “This is where our conference is.”

Still, it wasn’t clear as of Monday night that the Cut, Cap and Balance plan would even pass the House — GOP leaders were still whipping their members for votes as the bill was just introduced on Friday — and it’s a nonstarter for most congressional Democrats and the White House.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the Republican whip from California, predicted the bill would pass, even though he acknowledged after a Monday evening leadership meeting that he was “still working” for votes.

“This volley’s going over the net, boys,” Chief Deputy Whip Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) said as he walked into McCarthy’s office.

The internal whip work was augmented Monday by a spate of announcements from conservative interest groups that they would be watching the vote closely.

But the move to appease the conservative core of House Republicans created small pockets of dissent from around the conference. Some, like Florida Rep. Connie Mack, oppose the bill because it includes a debt-limit increase. Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier (R-Calif.), a member of the GOP leadership, is said to have concerns about supporting the bill.

Even some rock-ribbed conservatives believe it doesn’t go far enough: Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) told POLITICO Monday night that he was leaning “no.”

In private conversations, House Speaker John Boehner has expressed the desire to “go on offense” with the plan, which was substituted for a straightforward balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution last week.

Several Republicans involved in the planning said passage of the bill would lay down a marker for the GOP and give rank-and-file conservatives, who make up the vast majority of the caucus, a chance to vote for a debt-limit plan rather than against one. Conversely, the balanced-budget amendment, which requires a two-thirds majority for adoption, would certainly fall short of the necessary 290 votes for passage.

One moderate House Republican said the bill would “probably” pass because lawmakers would want to be “part of the team.”

House GOP leaders will huddle with their troops before the vote on Tuesday, making just the first of what are likely to be many contacts about the debt ceiling negotiations this week.

While many rank-and-file House Republicans have dismissed the Senate’s “McConnell plan,” as it is known, their leaders haven’t ruled it out as a solution to the impending debt-limit crisis. McConnell’s taken heat from his right flank for considering an option that would cede borrowing power to the president, but his plan would ease the political burden on Congress and shift it to the president in advance of the 2012 election — making it an attractive option to some lawmakers in both parties.

The senior House GOP aide said “the only reason” McConnell’s plan isn’t dead on arrival in the House is “because there are so few outs” to avoid a default.

“They’re in punt formation. If they’re in punt formation, we’re going to blitz,” said Chaffetz, a former college football kicker. Chaffetz also called the McConnell plan “stupid.”

All this leaves the endgame in the House unclear. When asked how the debt debate might end, McCarthy brushed the question off, asking a reporter why he was “discrediting” the Cut, Cap and Balance plan.

“Let us get it through, let’s get it over there, show us some love,” McCarthy said, with a smile.

Freshman Republicans are also pushing the plan and will head to the White House Tuesday to release a letter urging Obama to unveil his plan to hike the debt ceiling.

“Because you have not presented any written detailed proposal to raise the debt ceiling, our constituents are left in the dark as to what specific cuts you propose as well as what taxes you are planning to raise,” the letter reads.