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Friday, April 07, 2006
House GOP Attempts To Pass Budget Fail
In a surprising collapse late yesterday afternoon, the House GOP leadership pulled the 2007 budget resolution from floor consideration and gave up any efforts to pass the bill before the two-week April recess. Lacking the votes to pass the resolution, new GOP Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) failed in his first major test as head of the new leadership team in the House.
Boehner had made statements earlier this week vowing to pass a budget before the recess or abandon efforts to pass one at all. On April 4, he asked rhetorically, "If we don't do it this week, why do it at all?"
The straw that broke the camels back was a provision to require authorization from the Budget Committee for any emergency disaster relief appropriations in excess of $4.3 billion. This budget cap was heavily pushed by conservatives over the past few weeks (along with other harsh budget process changes) in exchange for their support on the budget resolution. But inclusion of this cap forced Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-CA) to withdraw his suppport and lobby the other 35 members of his commmittee to do the same.
While it is unclear if the House Majority Leader will hold to his earlier comments about abandoning efforts to pass a budget resolution, it may make little difference at this point. With the House GOP caucus now split into multiple factions and with united Democratic opposition, it seems more unlikely Congress will pass a budget now than perhaps at any other time this year.
And without the ability to pass a budget, the Republican Party continues to pull apart at the seams and has become a majority party withouth the ability to govern. While before they could muster the support to pass an irresponsible and reckless budget, this year, they may not be able to pass any budget at all.
Here's hoping they don't...
Washington Post: GOP Budget Talks Collaspe In House
NY Times: House Republicans Abandon Budget Effort
Posted by Adam Hughes
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