How Democrats Railroaded Republicans Into Almost Passing A Budget Too Conservative For Them

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TPMDC
How Democrats Railroaded Republicans Into Almost Passing A Budget Too Conservative For Them
Brian Beutler | April 15, 2011, 3:56PM

When House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) heard Republicans were going to hold a vote on the extremely conservative Republican Study Committee budget, a lightbulb turned on in his head.

"I thought to myself the Republican leadership is probably thinking we're going to defeat it for them," Hoyer told me in a phone interview Friday. "I said to myself I'm not interested in seeing that happen. I want the Republicans to show what they believe. And if a majority of them believe that that's the kind of budget the American people need to know that."

The RSC is a very large bloc of conservative Republican House members. They introduced a 10-year plan for America that makes the already far-reaching House budget look fairly moderate. It was supposed to be a symbolic vote -- one that allowed conservative members to go on the record in support of slashing $9 trillion in spending knowing full well it would never be adopted as the official position of the House and the Republican Party. Hoyer figured them out.

"I also knew that if we telegraphed that early, they would obviously try to anticipate it, work their caucus early," he said. "As a result I did not have a whip meeting on this -- I did discuss it with the Leader , I discussed it with the Democratic leadership. I told them it was my plan. And they were all for that...

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