Remember that post I wrote on Saturday: Boehner Acts Like Czar, Everyone Shrugs? Conservatives are still seething about the Doc-Fix voice vote. In fact, they’re so mad that they were thinking of killing Paul Ryan’s budget plan in retaliation. But then they realized something:
Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.) said there is a general sentiment among rank-and-file Republicans that any protest vote on the budget would damage Ryan, and not GOP leaders.
Ryan is much more popular with the rank and file than the leadership, and was not involved in the doc-fix decision.
And, in any case, they decided that the Budget Plan isn’t a spending bill, which is technically true but not something they’d say about a Democratic budget.
Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) was one of the members most angry about a voice vote last week on legislation to prevent a cut in physician payments under Medicare. The House passed the legislation by voice vote with only dozens of members on the floor.
Mulvaney called the maneuver, rarely used on controversial pieces of legislation, “bulls—,” and said he was undecided on the budget.But he emerged from a floor conversation on Friday with Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) singing a different tune.
“Earlier I was undecided but I am leaning ‘yes,’ ” Mulvaney told The Hill.
Asked about using the budget vote to protest the voice vote, he said: “I’ve come to realize that this is not the measure … it’s not a spending bill.”
These guys are a little slow on the uptake. Boehner passed a $140 billion bill on a voice vote that actually failed (more people said ‘no’ than ‘yes’) and they’re trying to figure out how Congress spends money instead of doing anything about it.
