With the Senate unlikely to pass a House bill that would fund the government for the next three months only if the Affordable Care Act is defunded House Republicans are scrambling to figure out what their next step will be in order to avoid a government shutdown.
Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters that he doesn't think House Republicans will pass a temporary spending bill if it does not include the defunding of health care law they derisively refer to as Obamacare, according to the Associated Press.
Despite the opposition to the bill that will likely get passed in the Senate Boehner still believes that a government shutdown will be avoided. The Senate is not expected to pass a bill until Sunday which would give the House very little time to send an altered bill back to the upper chamber if they still are going to meet the Tuesday deadline to avoid a shutdown, the Wall Street Journal reports.
"We have no interest in seeing a government shutdown, but we've got to address the spending problem," Boehner told the Wall Street Journal.
As a back-up plan in case they are unable to defund the Affordable Care Act House Republicans are working on a bill that would allow the debt limit to be raised, which needs to be done by the middle of October in order for the United States to avoid going into default, on the condition that implementation of the health care law be delayed for a year. It is unclear if tea party affiliated members of the House will accept raising the debt limit, according to the Associated Press.
"It does not cut spending significantly. It does not fix the problem," Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., said. "We need to significantly cut federal government spending, or long-term have a balanced budget constitutional amendment."
In addition to the delay of the health care law the debt ceiling bill will also include a rider authorizing the construction of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. The debt ceiling bill may be a tough sell for Republicans as not a single Democrat is expected to vote for it; which means that only 17 Republicans in the House could vote against it if the bill is to pass, according to Politico.
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has said that the reason Republicans have expanded the debt limit fight to include issues such as the building of the pipeline and the attack on the health care law is because they have very little leverage currently, according to the Wall Street Journal.
"The reason this debt limit fight is different is, we don't have an election around the corner where we feel we are going to win and fix it ourselves," Ryan said. "We are stuck with this government another three years."
