Politico...
GOP rallies around Boehner on deal
By Jake Sherman & Jonathan Allen
7/31/11 

House Republicans praised Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and the deal he cut to avoid a national default during a rare Sunday night conference call, giving first-blush approval to a plan that must still be committed to legislation and passed by both chambers of Congress. 

Now comes the hard part for the four heads of congressional caucuses: Selling the fine print. 

That’s the job that Boehner, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) signed up for when each gave his or her word to President Barack Obama Sunday night that the deal was in hand. 

It’s complicated, multi-dimensional and full of peril for the priorities of each side — so much so that while the White House pointed to the possibility of the Bush tax cuts expiring, House Republican leaders were telling their rank and file that the deal made that scenario less likely. 

It’s not “the greatest deal in the world,” Boehner told his troops. 

“But it shows how much we’ve changed the terms of the debate in this town,” Boehner said on the call, according to a transcript released by the speaker’s office. “There is nothing in this framework that violates our principles. It’s all spending cuts.” 

Come Monday, all eyes will be on House Republicans because they seldom jump in line without a fight. 

Boehner’s lieutenants, including Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), applauded the speaker for pushing the president as far as he could while avoiding the economic and political calamity that could result from a default on the nation’s debt — which the Treasury Department has said will happen after Aug. 2 if the cap on the country’s borrowing authority isn’t raised. 

House GOP leaders hope to have a bill on the floor on Monday, but no decision has yet been made on which chamber will consider the legislation first. 

If the deal holds — and rank-and-file members of both parties in both chambers must still review the particulars — it promises to move Washington out of a crisis mode and into a deficit-reduction mindset. The agreement provides for an increase in the debt ceiling of roughly $900 billion — in two installments — followed by equivalent spending cuts over the next decade. It would also create a “supercommittee” of a dozen lawmakers charged with putting together a deficit-reduction package of $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion that can pass Congress. Short of that, automatic cuts of $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion, split between domestic and “security” programs, would automatically take effect. 

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