A recently-threatened government shutdown was avoided by a last-minute offer from President Barack Obama to provide more snacks and longer naptimes for members of Congress, which was crucial to winning tea party support.
House Speaker John Boehner made this revelation in a Sunday appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Boehner noted that although Obama agreed to Republicans’ initial demands weeks ago, the GOP kept moving the goalposts by asking for more cuts.
“The president kept agreeing to what we wanted and each time we’d yell ‘psyche’ and demand more. We wound up getting more than 70 percent of the cuts we wanted but that still wasn’t enough for members of my caucus, even after I told them that the president wasn’t going to cave in to us anymore,” Boehner said. “A lot of the freshmen Republicans, the tea partiers, are young and they can get really cranky in the afternoon so frankly the president’s offer was a relief for me as well.”
Yet Boehner may need the support of some Congressional Democrats if he’s going to get such a proposal through the House, as not all Republicans were ready to support the compromise. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn), in appearance on Fox News Sunday, said she would oppose the deal because she learned Boehner had been hanging out with Obama behind her back.
“Boehner says he’s my friend, but as soon as he gets an invite from the president he ditches me to go hang out with ‘the cool kids,’ in the Oval Office,” Bachmann said. “A compromise should mean I get everything I want. Why can’t I have snacks, naps and a pony to go with all the agricultural subsidies my family receives? We should cut everything from the budget except for that. This deal isn’t fair!”
House Majority Whip Eric Cantor, appearing on ABC’s “This Week,” said Republicans would find a way to get the budget compromise through the lower chamber, regardless of its level of support.
“I have said before that the House could bypass the Senate, the president and the Constitution to just make laws on its own. Following that logic, we can make up our own rules on how to get the budget passed as well,” Cantor said. “Personally I like rock, paper, scissors or we might just declare that our supporters can vote two or three times each. That’ll show the American people that we can do things on our own, just like the big kids.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid could not be reached for comment. Capitol Hill police were still trying to find which locker he had been shoved into, which has become something of a tradition during Congressional negotiations. Reid spokesman Jim Manly said the Senator believed it was inappropriate to stand up to Republican bullies and that continued appeasement would someday teach them all a valuable lesson.
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