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House GOP leaders have been eager to lock down support from their party to back the bipartisan budget deal and avoid yet another round of fiscal crises.
That message appears to have gotten lost in the Capitol Rotunda.
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In the Senate, Republican leaders and senior GOP senators are balking at the budget deal, arguing that it hikes spending too high without demanding more immediate cuts in return. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is widely expected to oppose the proposal, and his top GOP leadership lieutenants also raised deep concerns Wednesday, highlighting the party’s continued divide over fiscal strategy that’s only intensified since the October government shutdown.
“I’m not happy about busting the spending caps,” said Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the Senate GOP whip. “Particularly, all along, I said that if that was going to happen it would have to be for something really meaningful in terms of shoring up Social Security and Medicare. It looks like it will just increase fees, which is another way to increase spending.”
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The Senate GOP concerns won’t be enough to kill the budget deal, which is expected to be approved by the House Thursday before Senate action next week. But the move marks an interesting role reversal for congressional Republicans. For much of the past year, it’s been the Senate GOP cutting bipartisan deals, whether it’s been on immigration or to keep the government funded, only to see the House Republicans balk. House Republicans have long been critical of their Senate colleagues, arguing they compromise too often, and are only worried about face-saving political votes.
But on Wednesday, Republican senators up and down the line were balking, including fellow GOP leaders like John Thune of South Dakota and John Barrasso of Wyoming, as well as deal-making Republicans like Bob Corker of Tennessee and tea party-aligned conservatives like Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.
The reasons Senate Republicans oppose the deal are plentiful, but at the most basic level, they have the luxury of nearly uniform opposition because they are in the minority.
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They know this deal will pass, since a handful of Senate GOP lawmakers favor it — it will easily clear the 60-vote threshold to beat a filibuster. So ‘no’ becomes the default position for many of them. Furthermore, Senate Republicans didn’t buy-in to the deal as their leadership was kept out of the loop of the talks.
Furthermore, conservative groups are attacking the deal, which could spook the handful of Senate Republicans who are facing primary challenges.
Upon hearing Senate Republicans’ pledges to vote against the plan, many House Republicans scoffed that they have that political luxury, since they’re in the minority.
“Superficially, it looks like they kicked the can down the road on funding, and they’re creating new spending,” said Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.). “Which I probably wouldn’t be supportive of.”
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This time around, it’s the House GOP telling the Senate Republican Conference that the responsible thing to do is to pass the deal, which was hashed out by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the budget committee chairmen.
“They’ve gotta take a peek at it,” conservative Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) said. “I think this is an agreement that ought to be supported. Because it gets us out of lurching from crisis to crisis, it saves more money over the 10-year budget window than current law does.”
The bill is expected to come to a vote on the House floor Thursday. Many Republican and Democratic aides and lawmakers expect a strong bipartisan vote to send it to the Senate.
