Obama to Boehner: 'Hold a vote. Call a vote right now. Let's see what happens'

NBC NEWS - President Barack Obama again pressured House Republicans to put a 'clean' government spending bill up for a vote Monday, challenging House Speaker John Boehner's claim that the funding bill lacks sufficient support to pass...

Adam Howard

Oct 7, 2013

President Barack Obama again pressured House Republicans to put a “clean” government spending bill up for a vote Monday, challenging House Speaker John Boehner’s claim that the funding bill lacks sufficient support to pass.

“My very strong suspicion is there are enough votes there” to pass the government funding legislation, he said during an unannounced stop at FEMA National Response Coordination Center in Washington, D.C. “Hold a vote. Call a vote right now. Let’s see what happens.”

“If Republicans and Speaker Boehner are saying there aren’t enough votes, then they should prove it,” he said. “Let the bill go to the floor and let’s see what happens. Just vote.”

House Speaker John Boehner said on Sunday a funding bill that would reopen the government but would not make substantial changes to the president’s health care law would not pass the GOP-dominated House. The administration – as well as numerous whip counts by media outlets, including NBC News – disputes that claim.

As the Senate came back into session after a Sunday recess, Senate Majority Harry Reid suggested that Boehner is “afraid” that the clean funding bill would pass.

“Are you afraid this measure will pass, the government will reopen and the American people will realize you took the country hostage for no apparent reason?” Reid said of Boehner.

At the same time, Boehner took to the House floor to slam Obama for failing to “sit down and negotiate” to end the shutdown and debt ceiling impasses.

“Mr. President, it’s time to have that conversation before our economy is put further at risk,” Boehner said.

In the face of the GOP argument that Obama has refused to negotiate over ending the nearly week-long shutdown, Democrats insist that the “clean” bill already represents a compromise because it funds the government at lower levels than some liberals in Congress wanted.

Click here to read more.