This morning on CNN’s State of the Union, White House senior adviser David Plouffe told Candy Crowley the following: “I think there are 60 votes in the Senate, 218 votes in the House, if these votes come up, for some of these gun-safety measures.” He was referring specifically to measures to implements universal background checks and ban high-capacity magazines, not to ban assault weapons.
Later on the show, National Journal’s Ron Brownstein pointed out that, if Plouffe is correct, the 218 House votes contains so many Democrats that such a vote would require Speaker Boehner’s introducing a piece of legislation which the majority of his caucus does not support. He did this with the January 1 fiscal-cliff bill, and Brownstein questioned how many times the speaker could do so while still preserving his speakership.