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Pelosi Feels ‘No Ownership’ in Helping Boehner on CR

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said she feels “no ownership” in helping to pass the continuing resolution set for floor consideration Thursday.

Pelosi did not indicate how she would vote for the agreement hatched by Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and President Barack Obama, but at a press conference with reporters the California Democrat offered little encouragement that her Caucus would help pass the measure that has drawn fire from House conservatives.

“I haven’t made any statement as to how I would vote but it was pretty evident the House Democrats were not a part of that agreement,” Pelosi said of the CR deal, which makes $38 billion in spending cuts.

“It was evident that the Republicans in the House and the Democrats in the Senate were the two majorities; they had the votes and so they had the strength to negotiate and the president presided over that,” she went on. “I feel no ownership of that or any responsibility to it except that we do not want to shut down the government.”

Pelosi said Democratic leaders are not whipping the vote. Her comments come less than one day after a new Congressional Budget Office analysis projected that the deal would trim this year’s deficit by a mere $352 million from last year’s spending levels by the end of the fiscal year, if war costs aren’t included. If war costs are included, the deficit goes up $3.3 billion from the CBO’s earlier projections.

It’s not immediately clear how the new cost estimates will affect the GOP vote count, but Republicans say they remain confident they will have enough votes to pass the measure later Thursday.

Steven T. Dennis contributed to this report.

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