House Speaker John Boehner defended a broad budget and debt ceiling deal on Tuesday, even as his likely successor declared the process that produced the agreement “stinks.”
Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who is likely to succeed Boehner on Thursday, told reporters as he entered a GOP meeting on Tuesday that he didn’t like the secretive and rushed way that the House, Senate and White House crafted a deal to raise the debt limit, increase federal spending and tweak entitlement spending.
“Under new management, we are not going to do business like this,” Ryan told CNN, adding that he is “reserving judgement” on the deal so he can review it further.
Ryan’s decision to distance himself from the deal is hardly a surprise, even though the terms look like something he might negotiate himself. In fact, GOP leaders have repeatedly likened the deal to the budget deal Ryan secured with Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., in December 2013, which lifted the spending caps for two years.
But Ryan is now in a position of having to secure support for becoming House speaker, and needs to hold onto the backing of the GOP conference’s most conservative faction. That faction is rejecting the lastet budget deal, as expected, because it increases spending by $80 billion over two years and suspends the debt ceiling until March 2017.
The election for House speaker takes place on the House floor on Thursday, a day after a GOP internal election. Ryan needs at least 218 votes to win the gavel, which means Republicans cannot afford to lose their most conservative lawmakers who have already provided a tepid pledge to back Ryan.
Conservatives rejected the budget deal Thursday, calling it “fiscally irresponsible,” and “the worst of the worst” because of the way it was secretly negotiated by House and Democratic leaders and President Obama without committee consideration.
The agreement raises spending by $80 billion over two years and lifts the debt ceiling in exchange for reducing the cost of the Social Security Disability Insurance program.
Boehner, who not only backs Ryan but begged for him to run for the job after Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy dropped out, provided cover for Ryan on Tuesday, telling reporters “I’m in full agreement,” with Ryan’s negative assessment of the deal.
But Boehner said there was no better alternative to the deal other than raising the debt ceiling without entitlement reform or an increase in military spending. “When you look at the alternative it starts to look a whole lot better,” Boehner said.
Boehner added that his goal before retiring on Oct. 30 was to “clean the barn,” for Ryan by resolving the difficult fiscal deadlines, adding, “I didn’t want him to walk into a dirty bard full of you-know-what.”
