At a monthly meeting sponsored by the Heritage Foundation, conservative congressmen vented their spleen about the Ryan-Murray budget deal. Though the distaste wasn’t universal — Representative Vicky Hartzler (R., Mo.) said she would support it — it was certainly intense. Representatives Jim Jordan (R., Ohio) and Raul Labrador (R., Idaho) bashed the deal for breaking the agreement made early this year in Williamsburg: that Republicans wouldn’t get rid of the sequester without long-term budget reform.
“I haven’t decided whether I’m going to be a really strong no or just a no,” Labrador told a group of reporters. “I think it’s a terrible plan.”
And Representatives Mick Mulvaney (R., S.C.) said the deal wasn’t meant to appeal to congressional conservatives.
“This bill is not designed to get our vote,” he said. “This bill is designed to pass with bipartisan support in the House.”
He added that while more than half of the House Republicans will probably support it, it won’t win plaudits from many members of the caucus’s conservative flank.