With Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) planning a series of budget “show votes” in the Senate, House Republicans are preparing to have one of their own, essentially daring House Democrats to vote for an increase to the federal debt limit without any corresponding spending cuts:
The vote is aimed at demonstrating that such a measure cannot pass the House, increasing pressure on President Obama and Senate Democrats to accept deep spending cuts in exchange for authorizing the Treasury to borrow more than the $14.3 trillion current limit.
GOP leaders informed members of the House conference of the plan at a meeting this morning, a spokeswoman for Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) told The Hill.
Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said he had introduced the necessary legislation on Tuesday.”The legislation I filed today will allow the House to reject a clean increase in the debt limit, proving to the American people, the financial markets and the administration that we are serious about tackling our debt and deficit problems,” he said in a statement.
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