Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) told reporters Thursday that Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) expressed his support privately last month for a “clean” continuing resolution to prevent a government shutdown.
He said the two leaders negotiated and agreed to fund the government at current sequestration levels of roughly $986.3 billion, which he said Democrats “hated” but were willing to accept to avoid shutdown.
“That was my concession to get this done cleanly,” Reid said.
The Democratic leader said Boehner was thwarted by his conservative wing, which demanded additional concessions on Obamacare to keep the government open. “He doesn’t have the courage to stand up to this small band of anarchists,” he said.
Boehner had in fact pushed a clean CR initially — albeit with a symbolic vote against Obamacare — but failed to garner enough House GOP support and so he ended up forcing the confrontation that led to the shutdown.
