Debt Ceiling 2013: House Republicans Do Not Have Votes For Their Plan, Says Pelosi

Shortly after the House GOP leadership took the podium on Tuesday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., stepped up to criticize what she said was a Republican effort to undercut the bipartisan solution reached in the Senate to end the government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling.

Praising the work of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Pelosi said the GOP’s last-minute decision to vote on a proposal of its own -- to prevent the nation from using up the rest of its borrowing authority on Oct. 17 and to put the 800,000 furloughed federal workers back to work -- shows a lack of support.

“The progress has struck fear in the heart of House Republicans who are trying to sabotage the bipartisan efforts in the Senate,” Pelosi said.

“What you saw earlier,” she later said, “is a speaker who did not have the votes for their proposal. So why are they doing this to the American people? Wasting the public's time? And in this case time is money.”

Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., who also spoke at the news conference, said the Senate has been engaged in discussion to save the country from going over another fiscal cliff because of a “family feud” among Republicans.

“This last-ditch effort on the part of our Republican colleagues to irresponsibly disrupt those conversations leaves all of us at risk," he said. “No American family should pay the price for some reckless politicians who are trying to get their way ... when so much is at risk.”