The chances of a government shutdown at the end of the month keep going down.
On Thursday, House Speaker John Boehner avoided one more tripwire when he rejected conservative demands that Republicans use government funding legislation to pick a fight over defunding the Affordable Care Act.
“Trying to put Obamacare on this vehicle risks shutting down the government,” Boehner told reporters at his weekly Capitol briefing.”That’s not what our goal is. Our goal is to reduce spending.”
Assuming the Senate passes its spending measure this week, the House will have to take it up and clear it by March 27 — the day the government’s budget authority expires. If Democrats support the bill in large numbers, that shouldn’t be a problem. But the question is whether House Republicans will oppose it this time around now that conservatives have endorsed using it to pick a fight over Obamacare.
Brian Beutler
Brian Beutler is TPM's senior congressional reporter. Since 2009, he's led coverage of health care reform, Wall Street reform, taxes, the GOP budget, the government shutdown fight, and the debt limit fight. He can be reached at brian@talkingpointsmemo.com.
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