Gov. Rick Scott joined a chorus of fellow GOP governors in a contentious partisan squabble over federal lawmakers’ failure to avert $110 billion in mandatory spending cuts to defense and domestic programs set to kick in in January.

Scott sent a letter today to U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., asking them to thwart an estimated $500 billion 10-year reduction in defense spending. The automatic cuts, known as the “sequester,” are part of last year’s deal to raise the nation’s debt ceiling. Unless a special congressional deficit reduction supercommittee came up with a way to cut the deficit by $1.2 trillion, the budget would face an automatic cut of that amount over a decade, split evenly between defense and domestic programs. (more…)

House Speaker John Boehner‘s two-step debt-ceiling plan got a rough reception from many conservatives and the Congressional Budget Office on Tuesday, forcing GOP leadership to put off a vote that had been slated for today.

But Politico is reporting today that support for the Boehner plan from members of the tea party-dominated House GOP freshman class “appears to be building” after a GOP conference meeting this morning. The Politico story quotes U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, the national tea party celeb who declared himself an early backer of the Boehner plan on Tuesday.

Freshman tea party U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, is supporting House Speaker John Boehner‘s new debt-ceiling plan — potentially providing important cover for other tea partyers who say the plan doesn’t go far enough.

West announced his support Monday night via Twitter, tweeting: “I will support the new debt deal- it has enough of what I need including no tax hikes, spending caps and a step toward a balanced budget.”

Boehner’s plan calls for $1.2 trillion in cuts over 10 years in exchange for a $1 trillion increase in the debt ceiling. That means Congress will have to revisit the debt ceiling early next year. President Obama wants a debt ceiling increase that will get beyond the 2012 election.

It’s not clear today whether Boehner’s plan has enough Republican votes to pass. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-S.C., head of the conservative Republican Study Committee, came out against it.

Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, is studying the Boehner plan and hasn’t announced a position, his office said.

U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, says it’s “more than likely” he’ll vote against the budget deal cobbled together late Friday night by President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

“Obama and Harry Reid ought to be ashamed of themselves and John Boehner ought to be doubly ashamed,” Hastings said today of the agreement to cut about $39 billion over the next six months. Details are still being worked out, but Hastings said it’s already apparent that “you’re getting ready to hurt poor people. I can tell you that without knowing where the cuts are coming from.”

Hastings in early March criticized Obama for being “slow out of the box” in budget talks. He reiterated that criticism today.

“I thought Obama should have been in much earlier. Quite frankly I think Obama is (concerned) about his 2012 election and couldn’t care less,” Hastings said.

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Four potential 2012 GOP presidential candidates — Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney — will be in Manalapan for the conservative Club For Growth’s private annual winter meeting Thursday through Saturday at the Ritz-Carlton.

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., who recently ruled out a 2012 run, and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and more than a dozen other congressional Republicans will also be on hand.

The event is closed to the media.

Republican congressional challenger Allen West says House members should serve no more than eight years and Senators no more than 12. And no legislator should serve more than 12 years in combined House and Senate service, West says.

If term limits aren’t made law, West says he’d voluntarily abide by them anyways.

“I do not want to stay up in Washington, D.C., and become part of the culture that I think is corrupting people,” said West, who’s running against two-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Klein.

West brought up term limits in a discussion of House Minority Leader John Boehner’s visit to West Palm Beach this morning to promote West’s campaign. West said the GOP “Pledge To America” that Boehner and other GOP leaders put forward last month falls short because it doesn’t mention term limits. West said he also wished the manifesto had more detail about curbing illegal immigration and about banning earmarks and pork-barrel spending.

House Minority Leader John Boehner, in line to become speaker if Republicans regain control of the House in the Nov. 2 midterm elections, says the GOP today is different than the model rejected by voters in congressional elections only four years ago.

“I think Republicans learned their lesson. They understood that we were spending too much, government was growing too much,” Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said this morning at a campaign appearance for Republican House candidate Allen West at the Gun Club Cafe in unincorporated West Palm Beach.

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Underscoring the national significance of the congressional District 22 race, President Obama will visit Alonzo Mourning’s house in Coral Gables on Monday to raise money for U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton.

House Minority Leader John Boehner, who hopes to become speaker if West and other Republicans unseat Dems in November, will appear with West at a Monday morning breakfast meet-and-greet in suburban West Palm Beach.

Klein and West debated today on WPLG Channel 10. Read about it here.