Boehner couldn’t even get his own party to vote for his bill, yet he’s trying to run it through the House today. To get his party together, he had to hand over concessions to the Tea Party that would guarantee that the bill would not stand a chance of passing any other house. Sure, you could pass it, Mr. Speaker, but that’s very passive-aggressive of you to insist that if it doesn’t pass the Senate that it’s not your fault.
The GOP has lost its party discipline, it’s plain to see. The radicals in the Tea Party are a party within the GOP: they are a coalition partner, an an unreliable one, at that. In a parliamentary system, Boehner would be up for a vote of no confidence and a snap election would have to be called to try and deliver a new makeup of the House – or he’d have to form a unity government with the Democrats and rule with them, having their votes replace those of the dissenting Tea Party votes.
Boehner has not sought unity, and that is why we’re seeing this wretched drama drag on another day. I have a feeling that some of those “red” politicians are holding their breath for so long, they’ll turn their constituencies “blue.”
Even though not entirely a coherent body, I’ll take those folks over those who are willing to spend the country into oblivion. Call it a mini-rebellion if you will, there are no good options outside of cutting spending considerably. Boehner, in reality, has no choice but to get his bill passed, in order to have leverage at the ‘final’ negotiations, which should be starting say, tomorrow morning. The other party has no decent plan, absent wanting to just keep on doing the same old thing for the next budget cycle