That Great Budget Deal is a Boehner

It is a good thing my policy on subjects that provoke me in the evening is to sleep on them before posting. If I had posted on the following last night, it would have been an *interesting* rant.

That Great Budget Deal about which Republicans sweated bullets? It only cuts about $15 billion. The rest of the supposed $38 billion is accounting gimmicks.

Sooooo, we didn’t get Planned Parenthood or NPR or Obamacare defunded. We only got this lousy t-shirt $15 billion in cuts.

I’d much rather shut down (most of) the federal government, thank you.

Expect not a little anger from tea partiers this week about this. And after they give their congressmen an earful, it is not a foregone conclusion that this deal will pass the House.

As for Speaker Boehner, his “Pweeeease don’t make me shut down the gowerment” act has resulted in a sham. He blew his first big opportunity to fulfill his mandate to cut spending. In so doing, he has put the nation and the Republican Caucus in a bad situation. For no matter what the facts are on this matter, the “news” media would spin a shutdown as the Republicans’ fault. But $15 billion is a joke. If I were a Republican congressman, I would be furious at Boehner for foisting this lousy choice upon me. His stock with the caucus has to have taken a hit.

It is hard to see how the Speaker can recover from this. He has lost the trust of Republicans and tea partiers, and has demonstrated to Democrats that he is an easy mark. How can he negotiate with any success on future budget matters after this debacle? He has managed to destroy his own credibility already.

Last night, I would have called for Boehner’s resignation. Having slept on it . . . I call for Boehner’s resignation.