Republican Anger Over Tax Bill Threatens Passage

House Republicans “reacted with anger” to a Senate-passed plan to head off automatic tax increases and spending cuts, “putting the fate of the legislation in doubt just hours after it appeared Congress was nearing a resolution of the fiscal crisis,” the New York Times reports.

Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) “indicated to his colleagues in a closed-door meeting in the basement of the Capitol that he could not support the legislation in its current form.”

Speaker John Boehner “was mainly listening to the complaints of his rank and file and had not taken a firm position on the legislation… He has said repeatedly that he would allow a vote on the Senate bill, but he has also said he did not want to pass a bill with predominantly Democratic votes.”

Politico: “A carefully-crafted Senate compromise to avert the fiscal cliff could be in jeopardy, as House Republicans seem nearly certain to tweak the legislation and send it back to the Senate because it doesn’t contain sufficient spending cuts…”

“But amending the bill and trying to send it back to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) would be a legislative high-wire act of the first order. Boehner and his leadership would have to find a way to get 217 votes for the altered package — and then hope the Senate goes along. Senate sources are warning that the upper chamber will not take up a House-amended bill.”