House Leaders Float New Plan After Dissent Stalls Progress
Gabriella Demczuk/The New York Times
Boehner Says No Decision Reached: As the government shutdown continues, Speaker John A. Boehner said Tuesday that talks between the two parties were still under way and no decisions have been reached.
By JONATHAN WEISMAN, JEREMY W. PETERS and MICHAEL D. SHEAR
Published: October 15, 2013 1648 Comments
WASHINGTON — Negotiations to reopen the government and avert a possible default just two days away were temporarily suspended Tuesday, and Senate Republicans emerged from a closed-door lunch saying they had to wait to see if their struggling House counterparts could still come up with their own plan.
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Doug Mills/The New York Times
Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, was preparing to try to sell his colleagues on the Senate proposal during a meeting of the Senate Republican conference.
Doug Mills/The New York Times
Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, arrived at his office at the Capitol on Tuesday.
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House Republican leaders, who had appeared stymied in their efforts earlier in the day, rushed out a new proposal Tuesday afternoon that would reopen the government through Dec. 15, extend the government’s borrowing authority until Feb. 7 and eliminate government contributions to lawmakers, White House officials and their staffs for their purchases of health insurance on the new insurance exchanges.
Under the new plan, the Treasury Department would be forbidden to use “extraordinary measures” — juggling government accounts — to extend its borrowing capabilities. Speaker John A. Boehner was hoping to bring a bill to a vote as early as Tuesday evening.
The continuing efforts by the House to reach agreement on a proposal put a halt to talks in the Senate after negotiators had appeared to be closing in on a deal. Stock markets dipped as meetings continued on Capitol Hill and at the White House. But for the moment, the attention had returned to the House and whether Mr. Boehner could come up with a proposal that would attract enough support.
“The focus today is on the House of Representatives and whether they can cobble something together that gets 218 votes,” said Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee.
The day began with a setback for Mr. Boehner, who emerged from a two-hour meeting of his fractious caucus to say that the leadership had failed to produce a path forward, soon after it released the framework of a plan to end the shutdown and raise the debt ceiling.
“It’s very, very serious,” said Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona. “Republicans have to understand we have lost this battle, as I predicted weeks ago, that we would not be able to win because we were demanding something that was not achievable.”
The sudden turn toward pessimism came 15 days into a government shutdown and two days before the Treasury exhausts its borrowing authority. At this point, the arguments have devolved from a major partisan showdown over the fate of Mr. Obama’s signature domestic achievement to issues reduced in scope: whether White House and Congressional staff members be denied employer contributions to purchase their health care; whether a tax on medical devices, opposed by lawmakers in both parties, should be repealed, delayed for two years, or left alone; and whether a tax on self-insurers — large businesses and unions — that enter the health insurance exchanges should remain in force.
But if the issues seem small, the fights — largely now within the Republican Party — seem to be raging unabated.
“We’re trying to find a way forward in a bipartisan way that would continue to provide fairness to the American people under Obamacare,” Mr. Boehner said, even as he acknowledged that “there are a lot of opinions” among his fractious members.
Senate Republican leaders encouraged their rank and file to remain patient to see if Mr. Boehner could find anything that would unite his troops, fearing that moving first would undermine a speaker already squeezed between the Tea Party and more pragmatic members strongly urging him to reopen the government.
“Clearly they’re still working on it, and we want to be supportive of that effort,” said Senator John Hoeven, Republican of North Dakota.
But patience is growing thin. Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, practically begged Senate leaders in both parties to move without the House, hoping that an overwhelming bipartisan vote would force Mr. Boehner to put the Senate-passed bill up for a vote.
“At this point, I think the Senate needs to lead, and we need to send over a plan to try to get government open,” she said.
Democratic aides in the Senate still expressed hope that Senate Republican leaders would move forward fast if the House remained stuck by the end of Tuesday.
If House Republicans fail, “that means the Senate will have to go,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina. “That means that what we get out of the Senate is going to be less palatable, less good government, and it probably would pass mostly with Democratic votes, which I think puts Speaker Boehner in a compromised situation.”
Representative Adam Kinzinger, Republican of Illinois, said that if House Republicans could not rally behind a proposal from their leadership, they would most likely be forced to accept the plan taking shape in the Senate — something many Republican House members have already said is unacceptable.
“If our party can’t pass this, then there’s no doubt we’re going to end up with what the Senate sends us,” Mr. Kinzinger said. “Look, if my colleagues can’t muster together and sometimes accept good because they’re waiting for perfect, then that’s on them.”
House Democrats, along with one moderate House Republican, met Tuesday morning with the chief negotiators of a bipartisan Senate deal to reopen the government, signaling movement to force the plan to a vote in the House if it passes the Senate.
About 20 Democrats and Representative Charlie Dent, Republican of Pennsylvania, huddled for a half-hour with Senators Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, and Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, who have been pushing the plan. Democrats emerged Tuesday morning united against any alternative that might emerge in the House.
If House Republicans cannot pass a counterproposal on their own, a bipartisan group in the House would demand a vote on the Senate bill. The same situation early this year allowed a bipartisan Senate reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act to pass the House with a minority of Republicans in support.
“It’s a bipartisan plan,” Representative Peter Welch, Democrat of Vermont, said of the Senate proposal.
Mr. Obama was scheduled to tape interviews with several local television anchors at the White House on Tuesday morning. In the afternoon, the president was set to award the Medal of Honor to Capt. William Swenson of the Army. His schedule also included a meeting with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Tuesday afternoon.
But White House aides will be keeping a close eye on negotiations on Capitol Hill. An Oval Office meeting between Mr. Obama and the Congressional leadership was canceled on Monday afternoon to give lawmakers more time to negotiate the details of a deal. But another meeting could be scheduled at any time on Tuesday.
Other showdowns between Republican lawmakers and Mr. Obama have gone to the last minute; in 2011, lawmakers reached a deal to raise the debt ceiling two days before officials said a default was possible, resulting in a stock market plunge and the downgrading of the nation’s credit rating.
But the real possibility that as of Thursday the government would not be able to meet its obligations prompted grim warnings of an economic catastrophe that could ripple through stock markets, foreign capitals, corporate boardrooms, state budget offices and the bank accounts of everyday investors.
“If Republicans aren’t willing to set aside their partisan concerns in order to do what’s right for the country, we stand a good chance of defaulting,” Mr. Obama told reporters Monday at Martha’s Table, a Washington-area food bank, “and defaulting could have a potentially devastating effect on the economy.”
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