Speaker John Boehner and House GOP leaders engaged in a furious last-minute lobbying effort inside and outside the Capitol on Tuesday evening to pass their debt ceiling package, but the outcome of that vote 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, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), had to battle their own party on two fronts.
Continue Reading 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 late Tuesday there was speculation they may have to delay the vote.
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 trio 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, Steven Hayes of The Weekly Standard, David Brooks of The New York Times, George Will, Laura Ingraham and groups such as The Heritage Foundation, among others, have all heard from Republican leadership. 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.).
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.
House GOP leaders are betting that if they get the bill in front of President Barack 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.
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 218 "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.
