i really don't see how letting the senate's version of the C.R come up for a vote would be seen as a defeat for the republican party, especially since i have heard the argumement from republican leadership that the votes are not there for a clean C.R.
That's a reasonable question. The answer is, that the Democrats control both the Senate and the White House. The President has Veto power, and the Senate Majority Leader has the same power that we're discussing here, so the Republicans have to use what ever leverage they can, to get their priorities advanced. If the Republicans passed a bill in the House cutting spending, balancing the budget, and or reducing debt, the Senate could and probably would kill the bill. If by some stretch of my imagination the Senate also passed the bill, the President could and probably would Veto the bill. The Republicans do not have the votes to override a Presidential Veto.
So... The Republicans have to FORCE the Senate and the President to negotiate and come to SOME agreement on the issues that the Republicans want addressed.
In the first instance, they first used government spending (the CR, since a budget hasn't been passed by the Senate in years). The Tea Party faction went, IMHO, way beyond reasonable by demanding full repeal of ObamaCare. But after that, the bills sent over (like the one year delay on the Individual Mandate) were reasonable compromises. The President went on National television and stated in no uncertain terms that he would not negotiate, although every President before him has negotiated on every CR that was ever passed. The Republicans did as the Congress has done for hundreds of years, and passed specific legislation to fund parts of the government, one after another, and the Senate killed each bill, or Senator Reid refused to bring it to a vote.
In the second instance, we have the Debt Limit. This is where, IMHO, the Republicans should have made their stand in the first place and left the CR alone.
If the Republicans vote to open the government, and raise the Debt Limit, they have no leverage and damn sure no guarantee, that the Democrats would ever agree to anything. In fact, I would bet a years salary that if they did, the Democrats would meet with the Republicans, but not agree to any damn thing at all.
the republicans have the majority in the house after all, so the senate version would have been voted down. or is there another reason why the senate version has not made it to the floor for a vote?
As I stated above, if the Republicans pass the CR for a year, they loose all leverage to get compromise from the Democrats. The Democrats will have no reason, what so ever, to agree to anything.
Plus, all spending bills (appropriation) have to originate in the House. They do not HAVE to take up any appropriations bills that come back from the Senate before going to "Conference" with the Senate. The Republicans offered to go to Conference and the Democrats refused.
Like I said before, good question.
