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Boehner abandons plan to avoid ‘fiscal cliff’

By Lori Montgomery and Rosalind S. Helderman,December 20, 2012

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Plan B was always a high-risk strategy. House leaders sold it as a $3.9 trillion tax cut — one of the largest in U.S. history. But it would have allowed taxes to rise by about $300 billion over the next decade compared with current law. Some conservatives labeled it a betrayal that would put congressional Republicans on record in support of a tax increase for the first time in more than two decades — while doing nothing to curb government spending.

As the week wore on and House leaders scrambled for votes, Plan B appeared to gain traction as a preferable alternative to a deal with Obama.

“The Republicans are in an untenable situation,” said Rep. Dan Burton (Ind.), who was leaning toward supporting the measure Thursday. “If we don’t do anything, we go over the fiscal cliff. And then the president will come back . . . and if the economy goes to hell, he’s going to say it was the Republicans’ fault.”

But Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.), serving his final days after losing his reelection bid in November, said the GOP brand would suffer if Republicans took a step that they had long argued amounted to a tax increase. “If you don’t draw a contrast with the other side, who are you?” he asked.

Speaking to reporters midday Thursday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) confidently predicted that Plan B would pass. But by mid-afternoon, GOP aides said, it became clear that House leaders had been unable to overcome the skepticism of their members, who were also swayed by veto threats from the White House and Reid’s vow that the measure would die in the Senate.

More than four dozen House Republicans were either on the fence or signaling their opposition heading into the evening vote. Shortly after 7 p.m., the House adjourned and Republican leaders rushed to huddle privately in Boehner’s office just off the Capitol rotunda, where the late senator Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii) was lying in state.

On his way to pay his respects to Inouye, Rep. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said he had “no clue” what was happening with Plan B. Asked whether he planned to vote for it, he said again: “I have no clue.”

Rank-and-file lawmakers were then summoned to an emergency meeting. In a break with his custom, Boehner offered to open the meeting with a prayer.

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference,” he said.

Minutes later, Boehner’s office issued a terse statement calling off the vote. And he and other Republican leaders hurried out of the Capitol without answering reporters’ questions.

Felicia Sonmez, Ed O’Keefe and Karen Tumulty contributed to this report.

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