White House dodges on veto of Boehner plan

The White House refused again on Wednesday to say whether President Obama would sign the “cromnibus” if it passes Congress.

Press secretary Josh Earnest again declined to issue a veto threat on the proposal, signaling that a provision that funds the Department of Homeland Security only until spring — a bid to give the GOP additional leverage to roll back the president’s executive action on immigration — is not a deal-breaker.

The White House’s preference, Earnest says, is for Congress to pass a bill that funds the entire government through September, not just most U.S. agencies.

{mosads}”The administration believes that, based on the system we have in place, that Congress should fulfill their responsibility and pass a full-year budget for the full federal government,” Earnest said. “That’s common sense.”

And the press secretary suggested House Republicans could have a hard time corralling the necessary Democratic votes with the carve-out for Homeland Security.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has said she does not support such a maneuver, although Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) have signaled some openness to the measure. With some conservative members of the House likely to vote against the bill because it does not explicitly repudiate the president’s executive action, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) may need Democratic votes to move the bill.

“The passage of a budget is likely going to require the support of at least some Democrats in the House,” Earnest said. “I certainly don’t speak for House Democrats, but I have seen that many of them share our view that any sort of piece of legislation that moves should be legislation that fully funds the full federal government for the full year and that they should do that without unnecessary ideological riders.”

Pressed if the White House’s refusal to issue a veto threat represented a tacit admission the president would sign the crominbus, Earnest sidestepped.

“I wouldn’t take it that way simply because, you know, we haven’t actually seen the proposal,” Earnest said.

Separately, Earnest said the administration was also waiting to evaluate a package of temporary tax extenders progressing through Congress. Last week, the White House threatened to veto a long-term package being negotiated by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) and Reid over concerns it would make some business-friendly credits permanent without doing so for programs benefiting the working poor.

“The devil in a lot of these things is in the details,” Earnest said.

Earlier Wednesday, President Obama said as a “general rule” the White House was “open to short-term extensions of many of those provisions.”