WASHINGTON — Fight on!
House Speaker John Boehner reassured his GOP troops Friday that he’s not going to cave to Democrats in the tense government shutdown, proclaiming, “We are locked in an epic battle.”
With no resolution in sight after five days, Boehner promised that he wouldn’t make a backroom deal — knocking down reports he might rely on Democratic votes to approve an increase in the nation’s $16.7 trillion debt ceiling before the Oct. 17 deadline.
“He said there might be a back room, but no one’s in it,” said Rep. Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.), after Republicans huddled. “I don’t see him weakening his stance at all.”
Before the cameras, Boehner pounced on a quote from an anonymous White House aide boasting that Democrats were winning the public-opinion war.
“This morning, I get The Wall Street Journal out, and it says, ‘Well, we don’t care how long this lasts, because we’re winning.’ This isn’t some damn game!” Boehner thundered.
House GOP leaders plan to keep calling up mini spending bills to fund popular but shuttered government programs one at a time to try to put pressure on Democrats.
Democrats are demanding that the House pass a “clean” bill to fund the entire government, with no concessions on any GOP demands on ObamaCare or other issues.
The House plans to be in session Saturday to show members working — then send them home for a weekend with no votes until late Monday.
The White House issued increasingly dire warnings Friday about the impact of the stalemate, which has forced 800,000 federal employees off their jobs.
It reported that the ability to monitor sanctions against Iran was being hampered.
Only 11 out of 100 employees of the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control, which monitors the sanctions, are on the job, official said.
The shutdown appears on course to extend into next week — perhaps even until the government hits the statutory debt limit in less than two weeks.