President Barack Obama challenged House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) Monday to prove that he didn't have the votes to pass a "clean" continuing resolution through the House of Representatives to end the government shutdown.
"If Republicans and Speaker Boehner are saying there are not enough votes, then they should prove it," he said in a speech at FEMA headquarters. "Let the bill go to the floor and lets see what happens. Just vote. Let every member of Congress vote their conscience and they can determine whether or not they want to shut the government down."
"My suspicion is, my very strong suspicion is, there are enough votes there, and the reason Speaker Boehner hasn't called a vote on it is because he doesn't apparently want to see the government shutdown end at the moment unless he's able to extract concessions that don't have anything to do with budget," Obama said.
Boehner claimed the House didn't have the votes to pass a clean continuing resolution Sunday on ABC's "This Week." But at least 22 Republicans are on the record supporting a "clean" bill, and if they joined all 200 House Democrats to vote for one, the bill would pass and the government shutdown would end.
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