House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told the House floor that Speaker Boehner went to the “dark side” with his debt plan that would cut government spending. When Pelosi was Speaker the national deficit went from $162 billion to over $1.3 trillion dollars.
The Politico reported:
Right before the House voted to reject a Democratic debt-ceiling plan, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi didn’t mince words.
Pelosi pulled out a Star Wars reference on the House floor, saying that Speaker John Boehner “chose to go to the dark side” and court the most conservative members of his conference, rather than work on a bipartisan compromise.
“It’s time for us to end this theater of the absurd,” she said. “It’s time for us to get real.”
The House struck down the Democratic measure, 173-246, in a vote that was designed to fail. Boehner brought the measure up under a special rule that required a two-third majority for passage.
“This thing is not on the level,” Pelosi said before the vote.
Boehner’s office said Saturday morning that the vote on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s legislation would show that the Nevada Democrat’s plan can’t pass the House, dismissing it as a “pointless political exercise.”
Though Democrats stuck together to reject Boehner’s plan on Friday, eleven Democrats broke off and joined Republicans to shoot down Reid’s plan on the debt ceiling. They were Reps. John Barrow (Ga.), Dan Boren (Okla.), Bruce Braley (Iowa), Dave Loebsack (Iowa), Jim Matheson (Utah), Mike McIntyre (N.C.), Collin Peterson (Minn.), Mike Ross (Ark.), Kurt Schrader (Ore.), Peter Visclosky (Ind.) and David Wu (Ore.)