Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has issued an unlikely challenge to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio): Drop the tea party.
Prominent tea-party-aligned lawmakers, including Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) and House Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), have come out against a short-term spending bill proposed by Boehner and other House GOP leaders.
And Schumer, who oversees the messaging shop for Senate Democrats, says those lawmakers are standing in the way of a long-term bipartisan compromise on the budget.
“These Republicans’ decision to abandon the three-week proposal negotiated by their own party’s leadership suggests that tea party lawmakers are unwilling to accept anything short of the extreme cuts in the House budget, even if it risks a shutdown,” Schumer said in a statement.
“It is becoming clear that the path to a bipartisan budget deal may not go through the tea party at all,” he added. “In order to avert a shutdown, Speaker Boehner should consider leaving the tea party behind and instead seek a consensus in the House among moderate Republicans and a group of Democrats.”
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