What happened to the "developing consensus" to amend the bill and send it back to the Senate to try harder?
House Republicans reversed course Tuesday evening and charted a course toward likely passage of the bipartisan agreement struck in the Senate to avoid the worst effects of the “fiscal cliff,’’setting up a late-night vote to complete a dramatic day in which the critical legislation appeared to be endangered for several hours.
In a second meeting with GOP members Tuesday, House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and Majority Leader Eric I. Cantor (R-Va.) outlined the options for handling the Senate plan while explaining the high “risk” involved with approving a different bill that might die in the other chamber, according to lawmakers exiting the evening session. Such an outcome could make the House GOP the public face of a failed effort to avert automatic tax hikes and spending cuts and possibly cause a public outcry as taxes on every American worker would jump.
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But the House’s initial negative reaction threatened to plunge Washington back into the high-stakes, last-minute drama that has characterized both the fiscal cliff negotiations and a series of other recent confrontations between the two parties over spending and taxes, including last year’s fight over raising the federal borrowing limit.
Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.) said a “consensus” was developing that the GOP should amend the Senate’s plan to attach additional spending cuts. “I would be shocked if the bill did not go back to the Senate,” he said.
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