Cantor: We Have Votes for Budget

The Hill reports:

Republicans are rallying around the budget deal their leaders struck with President Obama and Senate Democrats.

While there will certainly be defections, GOP leaders expressed confidence on Tuesday that their rank-and-file will overwhelmingly support the budget agreement.

Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) predicted Tuesday that the House will pass the fiscal 2011 spending bill on Thursday with “strong Republican support.” He went so far as to suggest the measure would pass the House even if every Democrat opposed it, which is unlikely.

At his weekly pen-and-pad briefing, Cantor expressed that he was not completely satisfied with the accord reached last Friday to cut $39.9 billion in spending from current levels, but characterized it as the “best deal” Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) could get.

While GOP officials declined to estimate how many House Republicans will vote no, they are optimistic the figure will be far lower than 54, the number of GOP?members who broke ranks on an earlier stopgap spending bill.