http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/budget/198074-conservative-groups-blast-clean-debt-billFebruary 11, 2014, 12:13 pm
Conservative groups blast clean debt bill
By Erik Wasson
Conservative groups are urging GOP lawmakers to oppose their leadership's bill to raise the debt ceiling without cutting spending at the same time.
The Club for Growth said it is key voting against the bill, which will come to the House floor on Tuesdasy, while Heritage Action said it expected it would negatively score yes votes.
"When we heard that House leadership was scheduling a clean debt ceiling increase, we thought it was a joke. But it's not. Something is very wrong with House leadership, or with the Republican Party. This is not a bill that advocates of limited government should schedule or support," the Club's Andy Roth said.
Heritage Action spokesman Dan Holler said: “A clean debt ceiling suspension is irresponsible given our nation’s looming fiscal challenges."
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) announced Tuesday morning that the House would vote on a bill raising the nation's $17.2 trillion debt ceiling.
The move is a stunning turnaround for the GOP which sought dollar-for-dollar cuts in exchange for a $2 trillion debt ceiling increase in 2011. Their new bill will extend the debt ceiling until March 15, 2015 — and likely add hundreds of billions of dollars in U.S. debt.
GOP leaders went to a clean bill after being unable to get 218 GOP votes for any increase combined with additional policy provisions.
After trying to tie Keystone XL pipeline extension or an end to ObamaCare risk corridors to the increase, leaders tried and failed Monday to get votes for a bill that also reverense a military pension cut enacted by Congress in December.
The Senate Conservatives Fund, already at war with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), said Tuesday that Boehner should be removed from office for his debt ceiling move.