speaker, john boehner, threw in the towel on efforts to attach other items to the bill. just 28 republicans joined 193 democrats in approving the so-called clean debt limit increase. boehner was unable to get all of his colleagues on the same page, although many republicans want to avoid the kind of political brinksmanship that led to the government shutdown last fall, the latest example of the house speaker getting stymied by conservatives in his own party. but boehner tried to shift blame away from his republican colleagues to president obama. >> you won't negotiate, you won't deal with our long-term spending problems without us raising taxes, won't even sit down and discuss these issues. he's the one driving up the debt. the question they're asking, why should i deal with his debt limit? and so the fact is, we'll let the democrats put the votes up. we'll put a minimum number of votes up to get it passed.