Conservative groups line up against Boehner plan

By Bernie Becker - 07/26/11 03:03 PM ET

Conservative groups are continuing to come out strongly against House Speaker John Boehner’s latest deficit plan on Tuesday, as House GOP leaders scrambled to rally support for the last-ditch proposal.

The Club for Growth and the National Taxpayers Union both released statements outlining their opposition Tuesday afternoon, in the process echoing what groups like Heritage Action have also said — that Boehner’s newest framework pales in comparison to other deficit-reduction measures the House has already passed this year.

The Club for Growth also said Tuesday that it would score a vote on the proposal.

“The Boehner plan does not achieve the goals of Cut, Cap, and Balance and doesn’t fix our fiscal mess,” said Chris Chocola, the club’s president, referring to the debt plan the House passed last week.

“Perhaps worst of all,” Andrew Moylan of NTU said, “this package does nothing constructive to advance the cause of passing a Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA) to our Constitution that would insulate taxpayers from Washington’s recklessness.”

The “cut, cap and balance” plan would have only allowed a hike in the nation’s $14.3 trillion debt limit if Congress had first passed a a constitutional amendment to balance the federal budget. The Treasury Department says the ceiling needs to be raised by Aug. 2, which is next Tuesday.

The Tuesday statements from the Club for Growth, NTU and Heritage Action came as Boehner (R-Ohio), Majority Leader Eric Cantor (Va.) and other House GOP leaders were trying to tamp down uncertainty among conservatives within their conference about the newest proposal, which would trade a $1 trillion debt-ceiling increase for roughly $1.2 trillion in cuts.

Cantor urged fellow Republicans on Tuesday to buck up, line up behind the Speaker and stop “grumbling and whining” about the plan.

But Rep. Jim Jordan, the chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, said at a Tuesday news conference that he was confident Boehner’s plan could not pass the House with just Republican votes. The Ohio Republican announced Monday that he could not support the framework, as did Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah).

Boehner’s plan, according to estimates, would allow the ceiling to be raised until early next year. A new debt panel created by the proposal would be tasked with finding more deficit cuts that, if accepted, would allow the ceiling to be raised again.

Democrats have decried that approach, saying market uncertainty would result if the debt ceiling isn’t raised for a longer period of time.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has his own $2.7 trillion plan on the matter, which utilizes already expected savings from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and reduced interest payments.

The majority leader signaled on Tuesday that Boehner’s plan would go nowhere in his chamber, even if it did pass the House. But Reid’s plan has its own hurdles, and was slammed by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the Senate minority leader.