 House Democratic leaders on Tuesday were quick to reject the latest proposal from Speaker John Boehner John Andrew BoehnerMomentum for earmarks grows with Dem majority Cannabis company says CBS refused to run its Super Bowl ad advocating for medical marijuana Breaking the impasse on shutdown, border security MORE (R-Ohio) to end the shutdown and prevent a government default, saying it's a futile effort that will only bring the country closer to economic catastrophe.  The House's latest plan to raise the debt ceiling and end the government shutdown won't pass the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid Harry Mason ReidUFOs were not the only thing that the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification program was studying Warren to propose 'wealth tax' on those with more than M in assets Overnight Health Care: Trump calls for crackdown on surprise medical bills | Trump officials give religious exemption to foster care program | Uninsured rate at highest level since 2014 | Juul hires former Harry Reid chief of staff MORE (D-Nev.) said on Tuesday. "For the House Republicans to come out now and say they're going to do something contrary to what even their Senate Republican colleagues are discussing seems to be a reckless attempt to try to circumvent what the Senate is doing, which at this late hour … falls short of common sense," Becerra said. Two senior House GOP sources told CNN's Deirdre Walsh the House GOP counterproposal would have been passed in a way to let the Democratic-led Senate to strip provisions with a simple majority. Given the progress that had been made in the Senate, Congressional Democrats and officials at the White House criticized Mr. Boehner’s move on Tuesday as an attempt to sabotage the bipartisan Senate talks even as they seemed to be nearing an agreement. “We’re trying to find a way forward in a bipartisan way that would continue to provide fairness to the American people under Obamacare,” Mr. Boehner said as he acknowledged “there are a lot of opinions” among his rambunctious members. Democrats latched on to a provision in the House proposals that would have forbidden the Treasury to juggle government accounts — so-called extraordinary measures — to meet obligations beyond a debt-ceiling deadline. On Tuesday morning, Republicans were going to move a bill that delayed for two years a tax on medical devices, forced the government to verify the income of those receiving Obamacare subsidies and cut health-insurance subsidies for lawmakers, their aides, the president, vice president and the Cabinet.
– House Republicans don't look ready to fall in behind Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell's plan to end the shutdown, and Democrats are lining up to take a swing at their effort. The House leadership today proposed an alternative plan that would include extra changes to ObamaCare, including a two-year delay on the tax on medical devices, and the elimination of federal subsidies for members of Congress and White House staff, the AP reports. "We think we've enhanced it in a number of ways," Darrell Issa tells the Washington Post, though he refused to say what Republicans would do if Democrats balked. And Democrats balked mightily. The White House quickly rejected the proposal as a "a partisan attempt to appease a small group of Tea Party Republicans," and insisted it would not pay a "ransom," the Hill reports. House Democratic leaders called the plan "irresponsible," and Harry Reid said it was a "waste of time" that "will not pass the Senate. Even before Democrats spoke, Boehner seemed to be distancing himself from the reports, telling reporters that House leadership has made "no decisions about what exactly we will do." He added that "there are a lot of opinions" among his caucus. The New York Times interpreted that as the House plan collapsing, and CNN reports that Boehner is "struggling" to find the votes for the proposal. But Politico's story indicates that there's still fight left in House leadership, with sources saying that they're considering voting on their proposal, then hightailing it out of Washington, leaving the Senate with two choices: Pass the House bill, or let the country default.