GOP leaders confident of passage

House Republican leaders heralded an imperfect debt-limit bill as ushering in a culture change in Washington spending, and voiced confidence that it would pass the House on Monday.

“The House will vote on a measure today that, although not perfect, will begin to change the culture here in Washington,” Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said at a news conference Monday afternoon.

{mosads}The House is set to vote around 6:30 p.m. to send the bipartisan debt-limit bill to the Senate, which must act by Tuesday to avoid a potential U.S. default.

Cantor said the “big win” for Republicans was that the deal contains no tax increases. He likened the party’s push to cut government spending to turning around an aircraft carrier, reiterating to reporters that he expects a majority of the Republican conference to support the bill and that it will pass the House without changes.

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) acknowledged that some Republicans have concerns about the level of military cuts in the legislation, but he said he told members of the Armed Services Committee that “This is the best defense number we’re going to get.” Boehner predicted that many of them would ultimately support the bill.

Boehner did not say whether he had the votes to pass the bill, but he offered an implicit reminder to House Democratic leaders that they were responsible for providing some votes for the measure.

“I would remind all of you that this is not just an agreement between the president and myself,” Boehner said. “This is an agreement between the bipartisan leaders of this Congress and the president of the United States, and all the leaders have a responsibility, because they’ve all signed off on the agreement, to bring sufficient votes to make sure it passes.”

A Democratic leadership aide said party leaders would not pressure their members to support the bill. Pelosi told ABC News she would vote for the deal.

Rep. Jeb Hensarling (Texas), chairman of the House GOP conference, acknowledged the spending cuts in the bill are only a modest step toward reducing the deficit.

“The numbers relative to the problem are minimal, but the directional change is huge,” he said.

Cantor said the House plans to leave Washington for its August recess after voting on the legislation Monday.