The coming two votes are significant for two reasons - one political and one tactical. Supporters will feel a strong political wind at their backs: A well-funded network of conservative groups is spotlighting the votes as defining ones.
"If they're not voting the right way, some of these guys need to go," said Mark Meckler, a cofounder of Tea Party Patriots, a conservative grassroots group. "If you drink from the Potomac, we'll send someone else. I don't think there's any litmus test. But every vote is chiseled onto a tablet."
Remember, said Brent Bozell, chairman of ForAmerica.org, another conservative group, "America will be watching and will remember on Election Day."
The Club for Growth and the Heritage Action for America, two more conservative pressure groups, also said they would be watching.
If the conservative plans fall short of enactment, as expected in the Democratic-controlled Senate, attention will turn by midweek to a possible deal to cut spending and raise the nation's $14.3 trillion debt limit.
If that limit isn't raised by Aug. 2, the government will run out of borrowing authority and possibly default on its debt. The mere prospect of that could spook financial markets and kick the weak economy back into recession.
GOP leaders have suggested recently that after the two conservative-backed votes, they can tell their supporters they did their best and then urge a debt-ceiling compromise for the good of the nation.
Talks on resolving the debt-ceiling impasse continue.
House Speaker John A. Boehner (R., Ohio) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.) met with President Obama on Sunday.
"We're making progress," Obama said Monday.
