A top lieutenant to House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) doesn’t have enough conservative votes in his corner to stop Congress from passing a $1.014 trillion spending bill meant to prevent a government shutdown.
“No, I don’t think he’s got the votes for this. There’ll be bipartisan support for this. There’ll be bipartisan opposition,” Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) said on Bloomberg TV. “There’s some Democrats that are very concerned about some of the authorization for Syria operations. There’s always folks on the right that are concerned that any bill, even though this meets the Ryan budget goals, they would prefer to spend less. I get that but at the end of the day I think the votes are there, the agreements have been made and it’s very bipartisan because remember the Democrats still control the United States Senate.”
Cruz is one of a number of conservatives who oppose House Republican leadership’s plan to keep the government from going into a shutdown by passing an omnibus spending bill.
But in the House, Cole said, Democrats votes won’t be necessary to pass the bill.
“I don’t think we need them, Cole said. “I think a lot of them will vote for it because they broadly support parts of the bill. Remember this is a compromise arrived at with a Democratic Senate so there were Democratic concerns at the table and the Democratic president has to sign it so he certainly has some leverage as well.”
Watch Cole below:
(H/t: The Hill)
