Hours before the House votes on his debt limit bill, House Speaker John Boehner put on a bold face and presented a strong argument for his proposal at an afternoon press conference with several of his House colleagues.
The message was simple: the House is acting once again to solve the debt limit crisis and will pass a compromise plan.
“Today, the House will take action, again, on a solution to end this debt limit crisis,” said Boehner. “After today, the House will have sent to the Senate not one, but two different bills that will rein in spending, increase the debt ceiling and end this crisis.”
“When the House takes action today, the Senate will have no more excuses for inaction,” the Speaker added. “Let’s pass this bill and end this debt limit crisis.”
“The President has asked us to compromise,” said Majority Leader Eric Cantor. “We compromised. The bill today represents a bipartisan, negotiated agreement; something that fixes the problem past August 2.”
The message of compromise from Boehner and Cantor pushes back on White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, who said in the morning briefing that the bill contains no compromise. (RELATED: Reid spokesman: Boehner’s bill dies tonight)
“[W]e continue to believe and remain optimistic that Congress will come to its senses, that cooler heads will prevail, and that a compromise will be achieved,” said Carney.
And when responding to a question by ABC News’ Jake Tapper about Republicans arguing the Boehner bill is a compromise, Carney responded with “Then what is the compromise that is inside of it?”
“The truth of the matter is that it’s not,” Carney added.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday afternoon that he will bring the proposal to a vote in the Senate immediately upon it passage in the House, should that happen, so it can be voted down.
House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy was present at the news conference, though he would not say if the speaker had enough votes to pass the bill.
He did say, “We’re moving in the right direction” and added, “This conference has moved a great deal in a short amount of time.”
When pressed about his plan passing in the Senate, Boehner ended the press conference saying, “There’s no reason for them to say no.”