House Passes Doomed Debt Measure

The House of Representatives passed the Tea Party-backed "cut, cap and balance" plan today, sending the measure to the Senate, where it stands next to no chance of passing. The measure, which requires trillions in spending cuts and a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution in return for raising the debt ceiling, passed along party lines, with nine Republicans—including Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul—abstaining, and five Democrats voting with the GOP majority, the AP reports.

President Obama, who has said he would veto the House measure if it got as far as his desk, has spoken in favor of the bipartisan "Gang of Six" senators' deficit-reduction plan. Even as the measure reached the House floor, John Boehner said leaders were looking into a Plan B to raise the debt ceiling, the Hill notes. "I’m not going to give up hope on ‘cut, cap and balance,’ but I do think it’s responsible for us to look at what Plan B would look like," he told reporters. (More debt ceiling stories.)