A longtime John Boehner ally had a priceless take Wednesday on the House speaker’s struggles to control his often-untamable Republican caucus.
As he heads into the latest round of debt limit negotiations, Boehner once again finds himself in the unenviable position of trying to avoid both a falling out with his members and a potentially toxic fight with the White House.
His latest pitch to Republicans, per the Washington Post’s Robert Costa, is to tie a restoration of military benefits to a one-year debt limit extension.
Boehner, who’s drawn plenty of blowback from his caucus in past debt limit fights, didn’t sign off on the idea. Instead, he asked his allies to sell the idea to House Republicans.
Costa has quite the quote from one such Boehner associate:
“Right now, Jesus himself couldn’t be the speaker and get 218 Republicans behind something, so I think Speaker Boehner is trying his best to come up with a plan that can get close to that,” said Rep. Patrick J. Tiberi (R-Ohio), a longtime Boehner ally. “Whatever we move, there will be critics everywhere, but at the end of the day we still have to govern.”
House Republicans on Wednesday abandoned their plans to demand the elimination of Obamacare risk corridors and approval of the Keystone XL pipeline in exchange for a debt limit increase.
In fact, it looks likely that debt limit negotiations will be decidedly less tense this time around, with Republicans already signaling that they want no part of a partisan showdown.
(Image via Shutterstock / Nattesha)
