The giant debt ceiling increase rolled together with a budget deal was introduced at 11:36 p.m. Monday, in the dead of night, several congressional sources confirm to Breitbart News.
The text is 144 pages long and increases the debt ceiling beyond when President Barack Obama leaves office, all the way until March 2017. It also, according to Politico, increases spending by $50 billion this year and $30 billion more the following year.
As AP reports, House Speaker John Boehner is pushing for a Wednesday vote, this would be yet another instance in which he has broken his promise to give members and the public three full days—72 hours—to read legislation before voting on it.
“We will ensure that bills are debated and discussed in the public square by publishing the text online for at least three days before coming up for a vote in the House of Representatives,” Boehner’s “Pledge to America” reads. “No more hiding legislative language from the minority party, opponents, and the public. Legislation should be understood by all interested parties before it is voted on.”
In a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in February 2010, Boehner also promised that three full days meant “at least 72 hours.”
By scheduling a vote on Wednesday—any time before 11:36 p.m. on Thursday, actually—Boehner would be violating that pledge.
Boehner is also putting the chances of his likely successor, House Ways and Means Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), at risk. Ryan has indicated he thinks the “process stinks” on this, but is planning to review the deal in its entirety before making a decision one way or the other.
Ryan’s office has refused to answer a series of basic questions from Breitbart News on whether he believes all Republicans in the House should support or oppose the deal, what took him so long to comment on the deal at all (he still hasn’t weighed in on the substance just the process), whether he would support Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) remaining on as Majority Leader if he becomes Speaker after McCarthy contradicted him on the process of the deal, and whether Ryan would allow staffers who were involved in this process who currently work for Boehner to remain working for the Speaker’s office if and when this takes over. Ryan spokesman Brendan Buck, over the course of several emails on Tuesday, openly refused to answer each of those questions. Buck used to work for Boehner.
The Associated Press captured in its piece on Tuesday just how high stakes this game is for Ryan’s chances.
“The House budget vote slated for Wednesday would come on the same day as the GOP caucus nominates its candidate, widely expected to be Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan,” the Associated Press wrote.
That means that as the House votes on this monstrosity, it will also be voting to nominate Ryan as the GOP conference official candidate for the Speakership—setting him up for a floor vote on Thursday at which Ryan needs to win a majority of those present and voting for a person.
If he fails to achieve that absolute majority on the floor—something absolutely possible since Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL) is still running against him—then it could set up a catastrophic-for-Ryan second ballot fight at which point Ryan would likely eventually step aside. It’s still entirely uncertain what is going to happen between now and Thursday, but with Ryan siding with the establishment in Washington on things like this it’s highly unlikely there will be a clear answer until it all goes down. Making matters more interesting, too, is that GOP presidential candidates are arriving in Boulder, Colorado. All are likely going to face questions about this highly unpopular deal going down in Washington.