The GOP-controlled House passed a budget bill Friday that defunds the Affordable Care Act, setting up the possibility of a government shutdown, because the Senate leadership–and the White House–have already said they won’t accept it. The bill passed along party lines with the exceptions of support from just two Democrats–Rep. Mike McIntyre (D-NC) and Rep. Jim Matheson (D-UT)–and one Republican defection from Rep. Scott Rigell (R-VA).
In a speech following the vote, Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) hailed the bill’s passage as a “victory for common sense.”
As Jonathan Chait writes in New York Magazine:
What makes the House Republican strategy so disturbing is that this flailing effort to solve the government shutdown problem is exacerbating the vastly worse debt ceiling problem. The other half of the House proposal involves promising members that, if they’re good boys and girls who vote to keep the government open, they’ll receive wondrous gifts when it is time to lift the debt ceiling. Chait joined panelists Karen Finney, Eugene Robinson, and Ryan Grim to discuss the potential for a government shutdown and the upcoming debt ceiling fight.
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