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“Right now, Jesus himself couldn’t be the speaker and get 218 Republicans behind something, so I think Speaker Boehner is trying his best to come up with a plan that can get close to that,” said Rep. Patrick J. Tiberi (R-Ohio), a longtime Boehner ally. “Whatever we move, there will be critics everywhere, but at the end of the day we still have to govern.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/boehner-proposes-linking-debt-l
imit-hike-to-a-restoration-of-recent-cuts-to-military-benefits/2014/02/05/7ea8616a-8e99-11e3-b46a-5a3d0d2130da_story.html

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House Speaker John A. Boehner scrambled to sell a new debt-ceiling solution to his Republican colleagues on Wednesday, encouraging them to demand a restoration of recently cut military benefits in exchange for a one-year extension of the federal government’s borrowing authority.

Though Boehner (R-Ohio) did not formally endorse the idea as his own, he did ask his lieutenants to test it among rank-and-file ­Republicans.

Boehner’s inner circle said he is casting about to find a solution that can pass the House without rupturing the fractious Republican conference, in which disagreements over past debt-limit strategies have caused considerable turmoil. He also wants to avoid a dramatic partisan fight with the White House, which has long resisted GOP attempts to extract major concessions on the debt ceiling.

The idea emerged after support for two earlier proposals fizzled. One would have involved another attempt to repeal parts of President Obama’s signature health-care law, while the other would have tried to force Obama’s hand on approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

But the House GOP’s path is far from settled, in spite of Wednesday’s turn toward a new proposal. On Monday, House Republicans, in informal whip counts taken by the leadership, rejected the two previous options for the debt-limit ­discussions. Those measures had mixed support, and the new ­military-benefits pitch will face similar challenges, with the House’s conservative bloc uneasy with any legislation that would extend the borrowing limit.

One key concern raised late Wednesday by House Republicans: making sure a restoration of benefits is balanced by cuts to other federal programs, in order to not have the measure be cast as a spending increase by watchdog conservative groups that are closely watching Boehner’s playbook.

House Republicans are looking at a handful of other options, should the military-benefits idea fizzle. Those include the “doc fix,” which would alter the way doctors are reimbursed for Medicare treatments, as well as changes to the federal budget that would reduce fraud and abuse or reduce mandatory spending levels, with the latter championed by the Republican Study Committee, a conservative House caucus.

But if House Republicans cannot find common ground soon on its debt-limit strategy, Boehner’s inner circle acknowledged Wednesday that a clean debt-limit hike — without strings attached — could be in the offing. http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/boehner-proposes-linking-debt-l
imit-hike-to-a-restoration-of-recent-cuts-to-military-benefits/2014/02/05/7ea8616a-8e99-11e3-b46a-5a3d0d2130da_story.html

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