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THUD bill is pulled as GOP budget frays - David Rogers - POLITICO.com
Why is John boehner still speaker when he cannot even get his own caucus to vote on things they want.
With support collapsing, a $44.1 billion transportation and housing bill was pulled abruptly from the House floor Wednesday, and top Republicans conceded it was a further sign that the party’s budget strategy is unraveling.
Putting the best face on the situation, Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s office said the House will return to the bill after the recess. But House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers bluntly said the chances of resurrecting the measure are “bleak at best.”
“With this action, the House has declined to proceed on the implementation of the very budget it adopted three months ago,” the Kentucky Republican said. “Thus, I believe that the House has made its choice: Sequestration — and its unrealistic and ill-conceived discretionary cuts — must be brought to an end.”
Republican moderates of the Tuesday Group were among those most upset with the level of cuts. And while $350 million was restored Tuesday night to soften the reductions from popular community development block grants, the combination of these moderate defections plus a predictable bloc of conservatives who oppose most appropriations bills was fatal.
The decision came even as the House Appropriations Committee was locked in a bruising partisan markup on a $24.3 billion natural resources bill, which also demands deep reductions to meet the GOP’s targets. And the panel has all but abandoned any chance of reporting its nearly $122 billion labor, health and education bill before the August recess.
Why is John boehner still speaker when he cannot even get his own caucus to vote on things they want.