Boehner Pushing Forward With CR, Military Funding

Despite the President's and the Senate Democrats' rejection of another short-term funding compromise, Speaker Boehner is putting his one-week CR, along with military funding for the rest of the year, to a vote in the House today.

The one-week CR is an escalation from previous stop-gap funding measures which cut spending by $2 billion per week. Boehner's new CR cuts $12 billion and it also funds the military through the end of the fiscal year. That's a crucial piece of legislation as it turns out those reports that military service members would not get paid during a shutdown are true.

If the House passes the CR today, it's up to the Senate Dems. They can either agree and avert the "dire" shutdown for at least another week or they can be left with responsibility for letting the military go unpaid while it's fighting President Obama's war of choice. Americans favor a budget solution rather than a shutdown 55% to 33%. Independents, who will be crucial in Election 2012, favor a budget solution 60% to 29%.

Obama again hosted party leaders at the White House last night, but they didn't come to a deal. It's better for the Republicans to keep offering solutions, even if the Democrats are just going to shoot them down. Boehner was on GMA this morning telling Democratic hack George Stephanopoulos that there's "no daylight between the Tea Party and me."

Related: PPP has Speaker Boehner's favorability down 10 percentage points since the beginning of the year. And that's not just from Democrats and Independents. Faithless Republicans have also abandoned him -- at a slightly greater rate (-11%) than the national average. When you're wondering why Republicans can't seem to get anything done despite their hold on the House, look in the mirror, kids.

posted by Gabriel Malor at 07:32 AM

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