Government shutdown inches closer as GOP leaders delay vote in House
The federal government moved closer to the brink of a shutdown on Wednesday as House Republicans failed to quell a conservative rebellion and were forced to delay a vote on a stopgap spending bill.
The party leadership said it needed more time to build support for a complex legislative proposal it presented to its members on Tuesday. But senior Republicans acknowledged that the plan lacked support from conservatives who are demanding the GOP take a harder line against President Obama’s signature healthcare law.
“Obviously we don’t have 218 [votes] or we wouldn’t have pulled it,” said Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), a member of the whip team who is close to leadership.
The plan devised by Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) would link a resolution withholding funds for the healthcare reform law with a bill to keep the government running through mid-December.
Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/domestic-taxes/321655-house-gop-to-delay-vote-on-government-funding-measure
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The job rating of GOP leaders among Tea Party Republicans has fallen 15 points since February, from 42% to 27%. Disapproval has risen from 54% to 71% over this period. There has been no similar decline among Republicans who do not agree with the Tea Party. Currently, 42% of non-Tea Party Republicans and Republican leaners approve of how GOP leaders in Congress are handling their job, which is little changed over the past year.
This internal dissent contributes to the lower job ratings Republican leaders receive from the public when compared with Democratic congressional leaders. The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center, conducted Sept. 4-8 among 1,506 adults, finds that just 24% of the public approves of Republican leaders’ job performance, while somewhat more (33%) approve of the job of Democratic congressional leaders.
http://www.people-press.org/2013/09/11/tea-party-increasingly-unhappy-with-gop-leadership/
