Posted by JM Ashby
The budget passed by the Republican controlled House which includes $61 billion dollars in cuts to domestic spending also includes the various anti-abortion measures that would see the defunding of Planned Parenthood and other aid organizations. With democrats in the House, and more importantly in the Senate, steadfastly opposing those measures, how do the Republicans to expect to pass a budget that includes them? Some Republicans aren't so sure.
Restrict abortion or cut spending?
The Republicans' "Pledge for America" says the new majority will do both. But negotiations over the federal budget threaten to force the GOP, including its 87 House freshmen, to choose between them. [...]
"That's a problem - and I mean, a real problem," said Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee's budget and spending task force.
How would he vote on a budget that cuts spending but lacks the promised abortion restrictions? Jordan winces.
"We haven't seen the finished product," he said.
Will the Tea Party freshman in the House, along with Jim DeMint and his new round-table of asshats in the Senate, prevent John Boehner and Mitch McConnell from passing a budget without the anti-abortion language or with smaller cuts to government programs? My best guess is -- yes.
A government shutdown will remain a possibility for the foreseeable future.