House minority leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) decided on Thursday she will vote “yes” on the “budget” deal between House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senate Budget Committee chairwoman Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA).
“Let’s get through it, let’s get it off the table, let’s move on to addressing specific issues,” Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol on Thursday, according to The Hill newspaper. “We’re very unhappy about it, but not enough to say, ‘Therefore we’re going to make matters worse by not having an agreement.'”
“Hopefully, it will go forward,” Pelosi added.
The Hill notes that Pelosi’s support means the bill will most likely pass the House when it comes up for a vote on Thursday evening, shortly after 5 p.m.
“Pelosi’s support will almost certainly compel the backing of other House Democrats, though it remains unclear how many,” The Hill wrote. “Democratic leaders have emphasized that they aren’t whipping the vote, and a number of liberals are already lining up in opposition based, among other things, on the absence of new revenues and an extension of UI benefits.”
With the support of a bloc Democratic votes, House Speaker John Boehner’s task of finding 218 to support the plan to get it passed out of the House before the chamber adjourns for the year on Friday morning becomes a lot easier. While many House conservatives are expressing opposition to the deal, there does not seem to be any mounting of an organized rebellion against the plan.
The Wednesday firing of the conservative House Republican Study Committee’s executive director Paul Teller combined with Boehner’s orchestrated attacks on conservative groups have seemingly quelled widespread opposition among House Republicans to this Ryan budget deal, though some like Tea Party Patriots, Americans for Prosperity, FreedomWorks and the Club for Growth have been loud about their disapproval of the plan.
The plan raises spending above current law for the next couple of years by undoing the spending caps the Budget Control Act (BCA), colloquially known as the sequester, passed into law. Then it attempts to make up for the increased spending by some cuts in the out years of the new ten-year budget window.
Senate Republicans, unlike House Republicans, are nearly unanimous in their opposition to the budget plan though. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, argues that the deal is not even a budget. “Senate and House budget resolutions were committed to Conference,” Sessions said. “They were not acted on. The result is legislation from Chairman Ryan and Chairman Murray, leaving Congress without a budget resolution for the fourth straight year. This legislation is not a budget and was never formally considered, crafted, or voted upon by the conferees. I appreciate the hard work Chairman Ryan and Chairman Murray put into their deal, but I am not able to support it.”
In addition to Sessions’ opposition, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Minority Whip John Cornyn, GOP conference chairman John Thune and Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Mike Lee (R-UT) have all expressed opposition to the deal.
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