Here's where things stand:
- Boehner's bill narrowly passed the House of Representatives, thanks to a tweak demanding a Balanced Budget Amendment in order to bring a few more diehard teabaggers aboard.
- Boehner's bill then died a speedy death in the Senate, as everybody involved knew it would, rendering the whole exercise pointless.
- McConnell told Reid he's not negotiating any more, so there.
- McConnell demanded that Reid bring up his own bill tonight, right now, so that McConnell could get started on filibustering it. You know, for the good of the country and stuff. Reid declined and suggested McConnell
bite him tell his party to allow the vote to proceed without getting filibustered. McConnell declined.
- Tomorrow the House GOP will bring up their own version of the unamended "Reid bill" so they can vote it down and then point to it and say, "See, we voted it down!" Because the House GOP is made up of little children.
- Rumors have it that Reid is tweaking his bill still further right, in an attempt to gain a few more Republicans:
The gist: Reid hopes to entice Republicans to support his plan in two ways. First, with slightly deeper cuts. Second, by adopting an idea, first proposed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, that would delegate the authority to raise the debt limit to President Obama -- and give Congress the prerogative to attempt to block Obama from taking that action.
It does not include any penalties or triggers to force Congress to enact entitlement and tax reforms in the coming months.
- The Senate will be back in session at 1 PM ET tomorrow. Forecast calls for a blustery day with scattered tantrums.
So yeah, we're screwed. We're governed by children.
