GOP's Womack: I'm Not Here to Play Patty-Cake

To compromise or not? That is the question facing the 87 House Republican freshmen as they wade through the ongoing budget battle, The Hill reports.

The rookies face pressure from the Republican leadership to support a compromise that can pass the Democrat-controlled Senate. And they face pressure from the tea party movement, which helped many of them get elected, to insist on huge spending cuts.

It was insistence from freshmen in the first place that led the House Republican leadership to nearly double the size of spending cuts from its initial proposal — to $61 billion.

Now freshmen are frustrated by the stalemate. “I didn’t come here to play patty cake or to do business as usual in Washington,” Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., told The Hill.

“I had hoped we would be finished with this debate by now,” Rep. Kristi Noem, R-S.D., added.