Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times  Representative Eric Cantor, left, the House majorityÂ leader, and Speaker John A. Boehner arrived for a news conference in the Capitol on Friday.  WASHINGTON — Less than 24 hours after failing to advance his plan to avert a fiscal crisis and telling his Republican colleagues to head home for the holidays, Speaker John A. Boehner walked silently into a news conference Friday on Capitol Hill, where reporters then pressured him to explain how he would manage to keep his job.  With his customary shrug and a grin, Mr. Boehner plainly acknowledged what the world already knew — he had failed to get enough Republicans to sign off on a deal to avoid automatic tax increases and spending cuts, and his members once again had left him standing nearly alone, like a man without a date to his own wedding, and at the crossroads of his career.  It was a familiar feeling for Mr. Boehner, who has tussled with a small but vocal group of House Republicans for two years over bills to raise the debt ceiling (once scrapped just before midnight), to extend a payroll tax cut (announced curtly to members over the phone, mute button pressed to quiet dissent), and to keep the government running (hours before it would have shut down).  In possibly his final act as speaker of the 112th Congress, Mr. Boehner faces a formidable choice: does he acquiesce to the will of a minority of Republican House members — who together helped him win his gavel — and watch the country lurch over a so-called fiscal cliff, or does he come to an agreement with the White House and pass it on the House floor with a mix of Democrats and Republicans, risking the persistent, and perhaps fatal, wrath of the party purists among the rank and file.  Should he choose to come to an agreement, it is clear he will have the support of Democrats. “These are big national moments,” said Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee. “It’s important the speaker put the good of the country above Republican House caucus politics.”  Mr. Van Hollen and other Democratic leaders in the House indicated Friday that they would help Mr. Boehner pass any measure he could put together with President Obama’s blessing.  Republicans fell roughly 20 votes short of those needed to pass Mr. Boehner’s bill Thursday night, which sought to make permanent all Bush-era tax cuts for household incomes under $1 million a year. In spite of Mr. Boehner’s assurances that the bill could pass the House — and the insistence of Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the majority leader, that Republicans had the votes — the Republican team charged with rounding up votes could not bring enough members on board, even though many of those who declined to support the measure told Republican leadership aides that they secretly hoped it would pass.  Many of the same members who have long had a difficult relationship with Mr. Boehner — Representatives Tim Huelskamp of Kansas and Justin Amash of Michigan, for example — appeared to fall away from him this week. But even more reliable members, like Representative Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, who was part of the team charged with drumming up votes, also declined to give her support.  “We had calls to our office, and people said they were not in favor of Plan B,” said Ms. Blackburn, referring to Mr. Boehner’s plan. In terms of her role on the whip team, Ms. Blackburn said, “I am here to represent my constituents.”  Mr. Boehner acknowledged Friday that “there was a perception created that that vote last night was going to increase taxes,” even though his leadership team presented the bill as an opportunity to prevent tax increases for millions.  Some Republicans say they believe Mr. Boehner’s failed bill was part of a grand plan to demonstrate to his members, once again, that if they do not follow his path, a much rockier one will follow. In rejecting a bill that allowed taxes to increase on a small minority of Americans, some House Republicans may well now face a vote on a bill with a lower income threshold, far worse than any deal they have yet had to swallow.  Others suggest, though, that Mr. Boehner simply risked his speakership with the vote this week, something he professed to be unconcerned with.  “I’m not,” Mr. Boehner said Friday. “Listen, you’ve all heard me say this, and I’ve told my colleagues, if you do the rights things every day for the right reasons, the right things will happen.”  Mr. Boehner enjoys personal affection from a broad swath of his conference, and has the support of Mr. Cantor, who stood by Mr. Boehner at his news conference and has long been seen as the greatest threat to the speaker’s position. Further, some members said that by taking his licks on their behalf, Mr. Boehner had only further endeared himself to them.  “I have to tell you, I think Speaker Boehner has come through this stronger,” Ms. Blackburn said.  Others are less sure. “I like John Boehner,” Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, said on the Senate floor Friday. “But gee whiz, this is a pretty big political battering he’s taking.”
By defeating his tax proposal, House Republicans left Speaker John A. Boehner in a familiar position â alone in deciding whether to continue seeking a deal with the White House.