Reid Slams House Debt-Cap Plan With Changes to Obamacare
By Richard Rubin, Kathleen Hunter and Roxana Tiron - Oct 15, 2013
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid rejected a House plan to halt the fiscal impasse, as he tried to build support for an emerging bipartisan Senate agreement to end the government shutdown and prevent a U.S. default.
The House proposal, which Republican leaders detailed to their members just hours earlier today, “can’t pass the Senate and won’t pass the Senate,” said Reid, a Nevada Democrat. It is “an extreme piece of legislation and it’s nothing more than a blatant attack on bipartisanship.”
Reid’s comments were an attempt to force House Speaker John Boehner to accept the Senate agreement and rely mostly on Democratic votes in the House to pass it. Reid has said the Senate could come up with its deal as soon as today, and final votes could occur later this week.
The House and Senate plans would both fund the government through Jan. 15, 2014, and suspend the U.S. debt limit until Feb. 7. As the differences narrow between the parties, a House vote as soon as tonight would test whether Republicans are willing to raise borrowing authority and end the shutdown without major changes to the 2010 health-care law.
“Our leadership met with our members today, trying to find a way forward in a bipartisan way,” Boehner said after the meeting. “There are a lot of opinions about what direction to go. There have been no decisions about what exactly we will do.”
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