spending caps which they were opposed to. they were starting to argue this would be a victory for republicans. republicans should take it. really, from the activist base, shepherded by a couple of members of congress and back to the base, herrage action, ted graves in the senate, the conservatives in the party, a third of the party a bit more maybe, made the argument this is a last-ditch chance to repeal obama care. if they didn't do this they were betraying the base. the leadership didn't do anything to push the base away from that position. two years ago, the base was not demanding this. jim demint who, is complaining around the country to defund obama care voted for obama care and crs that did not defund obama care. the ability of a small group of people to put this demand on the agenda is striking. it's not even something that some of the groups that funded the republican majority have