– Sarah Palin, issuing a veiled threat to tea-bagger freshmen in the House
Sarah Palin sent a warning to freshman Republicans on Thursday not to forget the promises made to voters in 2010, adding her outsized voice to the flurry of last-minute arm-twisting before a key debt ceiling vote in the House.
In a post on her Facebook page from “proverbial politico flyover country,” the former Alaska governor reprinted a letter she sent to newly elected members last fall, emphasizing the need to “rein in out-of-control government spending” and “check the growth of spending on our entitlement programs.”
…The message does not include marching orders for the proposal offered by House Speaker John A. Boehner that is on the floor Thursday. But Palin has said recently she was not convinced that a fiscal doomsday was imminent if the debt ceiling was not raised by Aug. 2.
“We cannot default but we cannot afford to retreat right now either. Now is not the time to retreat, it’s the time to reload,” she said on Fox News Channel earlier this month.
In a loaded postscript to her Facebook post, Palin reminds the House freshmen: “Everyone I talk to still believes in contested primaries.”
Later this afternoon, Speaker Boehner called off the vote on his budget bill, a clear sign that he does not have the votes to pass it in the House. Think Progress has been tallying the votes:
Boehner needs 216 votes to pass the plan. Since there are 240 Republican members of the House, Boehner can only afford to have 24 Republicans vote against the bill — provided he does not get any Democratic votes.
According to ThinkProgress’ tally, 26 House members are opposed to Boehner’s bill.
Sarah who?