House Passes Spending Portion Of Boehner's 'Plan B'

The House of Representatives has narrowly approved a bill that would avoid looming cuts to defense spending and instead apply cuts to other programs.

The bill is seen as the spending portion of Speaker John Boehner's "Plan B" legislation that he hopes to bring to bear in negotiations with President Obama on ways to avoid the "fiscal cliff" that would come unless Democrats and Republicans can agree on a comprehensive deal.

The House is expected to vote on the portion of "Plan B' that deals with taxes this evening, possibly after 8 p.m. ET. NPR will be following that story on its homepage and in the It's All Politics blog.

As C-SPAN explains, the House Republicans' tax measure "would permanently extend the Bush-era tax rates for everyone on the first $1 million of earned income."

The final vote on the Republican-backed spending bill that would reorganize the "sequestration" that is part of the end-of-year deadline that will bring broad tax hikes and spending cuts, was 215-209. The Hill reports that 21 Republicans voted against the measure.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, said today that the Plan B legislation will not come to a vote in the Senate. And President Obama has vowed to veto the measure if it were to make it to his desk.

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