Steny Hoyer: Boehner Plan Will Get No Democratic Votes
House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer says that the Boehner Plan is likely to get zero Democratic votes when it comes up for a vote:
After aggressively whipping votes, the office of House minority whip Steny Hoyer now believes that not a single Democrat will vote for John Boehner’s debt ceiling plan, delivering a blow to GOP hopes for getting it through the House, a top Democratic aide tells me.
“Hoyer has been whipping against the Boehner bill very hard,” says the aide, who is close to Hoyer’s whipping operation. “No Democrats will vote for it.”
If this bears out — and it’s important to emphasize that nothing is ever certain in the alternate universe otherwise known as the United States Congress — it could be a very big deal. It means that House Republicans need all Republican votes to pass the Boehner plan, which would hike the debt ceiling in stages, and significantly reduces the margin of error House GOP vote counters have at their disposal.
Each Dem vote for the plan means GOP leaders need one less House conservative to support it, and if Dems unanimously vote against the proposal, House Republicans can only afford to lose roughly two dozen GOPers in order to pass it. The latest public whip count has it that some 20 House GOPers are either firm No votes or are leaning in the direction of No, though the private count could be somewhat different, and it’s also important to remember that things could change once GOP leaders release the new version of their proposal in response to the CBO score finding less-than-desired savings.
If this is true, it could explain the sense of panic one gets from House Republicans over the Boehner Plan, and the aggressive whipping that they’ve been apparently doing in their own caucus since yesterday.
Meanwhile, the Dow is down almost 200 (1.6%) and the Nasdaq is down 75 (2.65%). Someone on Wall Street is getting pissed.