Hoyer on Debt Ceiling: No Votes Without Revenues

The Huffington Post reports:

The Democratic House leader in charge of counting votes on legislation to raise the nation's debt ceiling warned on Monday that he couldn't guarantee a single vote from his party if revenues weren't part of the deal. His counterpart on the Republican side echoed that prediction if revenues were part of the deal.

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) told attendees at a White House gathering that a Republican-pushed plan to slash more than $1.5 trillion in federal spending -- along with reforms to the entitlement program -- would likely have to pass with only GOP support.

"In the room, the Democrats made clear they couldn't get Democratic votes for such a cut-only package," said a Democratic official with knowledge of the exchange. "And that is relevant because everyone knows that Cantor and Boehner will bleed a significant number of their caucus before we even start the process. So anything that passes requires significant Democratic votes and the thing they laid out that didn't have revenues, that was all cuts, didn't meet the test... Democrats made clear there was no Democratic support for it."

A spokesman for Hoyer confirmed that the Maryland Democrat said he could guarantee "no Democratic votes on a package without revenues."