“I talked to Democrats and Republicans who were pretty bewildered by what Boehner had said," the New York Times' Jeremy Peters said on Monday's Morning Joe.
Could the House of Representatives pass a clean continuing resolution—one that funds the government and isn’t about giving Republicans a “win” on Obamacare, birth control, or something else?
John Boehner says no. “We are not going to pass a clean debt limit. The votes are not there in the House,” the Republican House Speaker said on Sunday.
But New York Times’ Jeremy Peters said some legislators are baffled by this assertion.
“I talked to Democrats and Republicans who were pretty bewildered by what Boehner had said. The way Peter King put it to me was there are probably 50-75 GOP votes for this,” Peters said on Monday’s Morning Joe. “He told me he thinks there would be 150 GOP votes for this if it were a secret ballot.”
House Republicans are eager to get out of the stalemate, Peters said, but Boehner’s remarks on ABC’s “This Week” indicate that the leadership is unwilling to ignore the Tea Party.
“John Boehner’s comments were really interesting yesterday because what he was saying effectively was ‘OK, these far-right conservative members of my conference, all the people the world has been telling me to throw under the bus, I’m not going to do that.’” Peters said. “He has really dug in here.”
“We do have the votes to pass a clean C.R.; they could pass it today,” host Joe Scarborough said Monday. “They have the votes to pass a clean, debt ceiling increase. They have that today. John Boehner could go on the floor at nine o’clock this morning.”