House Republican Leaders Demand Senate Action
Posted at 8 a.m. on Dec. 27, 2012
The Washington Post reports that the Republican leaders of the House have demanded that the Senate “take up earlier House-approved bills in a legislative ‘ping-pong’ until the two chambers reach a deal to avert austerity measures set to take effect next week.”
“House Speaker John A. Boehner’s leadership team has decided that bouncing bills back and forth between the chambers would be the fastest way to reach a compromise.”
Matthew Yglesias: “while anything Boehner and Obama agree to will easily pass the Senate, in the absence of an agreement it’ll be hard for Obama to get anything past the Senate. He’d need a lot of Republican votes to overcome a filibuster… Then once something like that difference-splitting bill passes the Senate, Boehner gets to take it up as the new baseline for negotiations and pull the ultimate resolution even further to the right.”
