WASHINGTON — A frantic day of legislative maneuvering ended in futility for Speaker John A. Boehner on Tuesday, as the most conservative members of the House refused to back his proposed compromise to end the standoff over the federal budget.
The failure leaves a bipartisan Senate plan negotiated by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) as the sole way out of a stalemate that risks a U.S. default on its bills and huge economic disruptions.
A bill that passed the Senate would receive Democratic support in the House, guaranteeing a majority if Boehner were willing to bring it to the floor even without the backing of most Republicans. He is widely expected to do so, however, having run out of time for other options.
The blinking. It happens. I can’t see how 20 members of a minority part – as in they don’t control the Senate or the White House – stands a chance in hell of blocking the budget agreement.
While I’m glad this is happening (my 401k finally started to show a profit since 2008), part of me is evil enough to wish Reid had basically said to McConnell “This is on you. You fix this problem. I have bigger fish to fry.”
And then went off and fixed the filibuster rules to prevent Ted Cruz from making an ass out of himself, his party, and the nation.
Things have reached such an impasse that China, among our largest foreign creditors, is sounding an alarm. Not “criticizing,” panicking. That’s on Boehner, too. He created this crisis, whether it was through a drunken negligence or his own deviant planning, and he has to own its consequences.
I can’t see how he survives as Speaker at the end of the next term (if indeed he makes it that far.) He’s managed to piss off the radical reactionary racists AND the moderate centrists of a party that has over the past thirty years watched itself tear asunder, held together only by the soft glue of Ronald Reagan’s falsified resume.
In truth, the only saving grace the Republican party has for the 2014 elections is, apart from gerrymandering, the short attention span of Americans. If I’m Obama, I’m praying for a one year budget agreement that raises at least the shadow of default next October.
“Full faith and credit,” Teabaggers. That’s in the Constitution, too.
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