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First Posted: 8/1/11 07:17 PM ET Updated: 8/1/11 07:17 PM ET
WASHINGTON -- The House passed a bill on Monday evening to cut spending by $2.1 trillion and raise the debt ceiling until 2013, just one day before the Aug. 2 deadline for the government to begin defaulting on its loans.
The deal passed mostly on the back of House Republicans, with 269 votes for the deal and 161 against it. Among the 240 Republicans, 174 supported the bill.
House Democrats were furious, with some members calling the bill a "Satan sandwich" and most of the Congressional Progressive Caucus vowing to vote against it. In the end, however, 95 Democrats voted to support the bill, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), who is recovering from a gun shot wound.
By approving the bill, which should easily pass the Senate on Tuesday, the House allowed the government to avoid a historic default on the nation's loans. But first, it had to anger plenty of progressives on the left and Tea Partiers on the right, both of whom opposed the deal.
Leadership on both sides insisted that though the deal was not perfect, it made the best of a difficult situation. With the House led by Republicans and the Senate and White House led by Democrats, Congress was gridlocked for months over how to raise the debt ceiling, with congressional Republicans walking away from the negotiating table multiple times.
By Sunday, when a deal had been cemented, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) faced a tough task: selling the bill to his conference, many of whom have opposed raising the debt limit unless tied to passage of a balanced budget amendment. Conservative members of the House GOP conference revolted against a debt ceiling plan presented by Boehner last week, forcing him to revise the bill's provision on the balanced budget amendment at the last minute to win more votes.
The final deal includes a requirement to vote on the balanced budget amendment, making it more like the original Boehner bill. But he insisted to his members that it brought them closer to passage of the amendment than ever before.
WASHINGTON -- The House passed a bill on Monday evening to cut spending by $2.1 trillion and raise the debt ceiling until 2013, just one day before the Aug. 2 deadline for the government to begin defaulting on its loans.
The deal passed mostly on the back of House Republicans, with 269 votes for the deal and 161 against it. Among the 240 Republicans, 174 supported the bill.
House Democrats were furious, with some members calling the bill a "Satan sandwich" and most of the Congressional Progressive Caucus vowing to vote against it. In the end, however, 95 Democrats voted to support the bill, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), who is recovering from a gun shot wound.
By approving the bill, which should easily pass the Senate on Tuesday, the House allowed the government to avoid a historic default on the nation's loans. But first, it had to anger plenty of progressives on the left and Tea Partiers on the right, both of whom opposed the deal.
Leadership on both sides insisted that though the deal was not perfect, it made the best of a difficult situation. With the House led by Republicans and the Senate and White House led by Democrats, Congress was gridlocked for months over how to raise the debt ceiling, with congressional Republicans walking away from the negotiating table multiple times.
By Sunday, when a deal had been cemented, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) faced a tough task: selling the bill to his conference, many of whom have opposed raising the debt limit unless tied to passage of a balanced budget amendment. Conservative members of the House GOP conference revolted against a debt ceiling plan presented by Boehner last week, forcing him to revise the bill's provision on the balanced budget amendment at the last minute to win more votes.
The final deal includes a requirement to vote on the balanced budget amendment, making it more like the original Boehner bill. But he insisted to his members that it brought them closer to passage of the amendment than ever before.