ferking: Speaker of the House John Boehner
walks past reporters after a
meeting with House Republicans on
Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Oct. 16,
2013 in Washington. Done deal 10/16/13 10:45 AM ByBenjy Sarlin Sixteen days and $24 billion in
damage to the economy later, the
House voted to end the government
shutdown and raise the debt ceiling
– sending a bill already approved by
the Senate on to President Barack Obama, who said he plans to sign it
immediately. The House voted 285 to 144 to pass
the bill. The vote ends a weeks-long
stalemate that began as a fight
over the president’s health care
law, which was barely touched in
the deal passed Wednesday – a far
cry from the complete defunding of the law that Republicans wanted at
the start. The White House told federal
workers to plan to return to work
Thursday morning. “Once this agreement arrives on my
desk I will sign it immediately, we
will begin reopening our
government immediately, and we
can begin to lift this cloud of
uncertainty and unease from our businesses and from the American
people,” Obama said just before the
House vote. Asked by a reporter as Obama
walked away whether Congress
would only force another shutdown
in a few months when the Senate
deal expires, Obama replied simply,
“No.” Details of the plan were hammered
out between Democrats and
Republicans in the Senate. The bill will fund the government
through January 15, raise the debt
ceiling until February 7, and restore
back pay to federal workers
affected by the shutdown. It
touches on Obamacare in only one minor way, by strengthening its
income verification procedure for
insurance subsidies, a tweak
supported by the White House. The
deal also sets up a budget
conference between the House and Senate to work out a larger
spending deal by December 13, a
negotiating structure that
Democrats have demanded for
months. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
thanked Republicans, including
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, for
striking a deal. “Averting this crisis is historic,”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
said. “Let’s be honest. This is pain
inflicted on our nation for no good
reason.” “We cannot make this mistake
again as we go into the next round
of negotiations,” Reid said. A strong majority of 81 senators
voted for the deal; 18 opposed.
Those voting “no” included Senators
Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Marco Rubio,
and Rand Paul, four of the most
prominent Republicans who backed the defund strategy that provoked
the shutdown. Boehner announced earlier in the
day he believed the bill would clear
the House. “The House has fought with
everything it has to convince the
president of the United States to
engage in bipartisan negotiations
aimed at addressing our country’s
debt and providing fairness for the American people under
Obamacare,” Boehner said in a
statement. “That fight will
continue. But blocking
the bipartisan agreement reached
today by the members of the Senate will not be a tactic for us.” Boehner’s announcement came
after a brief meeting with his
conference in the House basement,
where participants said he was
greeted with an immediate
standing ovation. Despite the warm reception, his decision confirms
that the party will move on from
the debt ceiling and shutdown
fights with no significant
concessions whatsoever after they
tried to defund, then delay the president’s health care law. Senate leaders Reid and Mitch
McConnell announced the deal to
end the shutdown and raise the
debt ceiling early Wednesday
afternoon in successive
speeches. Removing a key obstacle to passage, Senator Ted Cruz said
shortly afterwards that he would
not use procedural tricks to delay a
vote past the October 17 deadline
to raise the debt ceiling, a move
that could have put the nation at risk of default. Speaking from the Senate floor,
McConnell acknowledged that his
party had fallen far short of its
initial goals of blocking the
Affordable Care Act, but urged
members to unite behind him. “Republicans remain determined to
repeal this terrible law,” McConnell
said in a speech from the Senate
floor. “But for today… the relief we
hope for is to reopen the
govenrment, avoid default, and protect the historic cuts we
achieved under the Budget Control
Act.” Boehner’s own plan imploded Tuesday night when warring
factions in his conference made a
deal impossible. In a dramatic defeat,
Boehner scrapped a bill that would raise the debt ceiling, end the
shutdown, and secure minor
changes to the Affordable Care
Act. The proposal was a last-ditch
plan by Boehner to end the standoff
with some shred of dignity before Senate leaders reached a bipartisan
deal with even more modest
Obamacare changes. But House
conservatives, backed by the
influential Heritage Foundation,
rebelled and refused to support the measure, decrying it as too weak
on the president’s health care law. In the end, they lost anyway.