BREAKING: Boehner 3.0 passed by the House only to die in the Senate

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

While the clock has been ticking down to a debt default, the TanMan, Weeper of the House John Boehner has wasted an entire week trying to craft a symbolic bill to save his job as Speaker from a mutiny by his Tea Party Caucus by finally caving in to their delusional demands for a "Cut, Cap and Balanced Budget Amendment" Lite bill today.

Boehner has put his own political ambitions and the politics of his political party ahead of the best interests of the nation and the American people. This is an embarrassment to our democracy and to our nation around the world.

The Boehner 3.0 bill has finally passed the Tea-Publican House on a slim party-line vote of 218 to 210, with 7 members not voting. (217 needed to pass). Boehner 3.0 is a pile of horseshit. But Boehner will insist there must be a pony in here somewhere! (h/t Ronald Reagan, his favorite joke). It will now move to the Senate where it will receive the quick and merciful death that it deserves.

Boehner's angry tirade prior to the vote was reminiscent of his angry "Hell no!" angry tirade in opposition to the Health Care Reform bill, which just demonstrates the hypocrisy and ridiculousness of this angry little man today: “It’s time for somebody in this town to say yes. . . . When is somebody on the other side of the aisle going to take yes for an answer?”

Now Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid must get something passed in the Senate before midnight tonight because of the Senate's arcane rules for debate. Sen. Reid can do a "strike everything" amendment substituting his bill language for the Boehner bill, keeping only the bill number from the House.

If Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and his Tea-Publican Caucus will not agree to this, it will add another day to the process by forcing Sen. Reid to proceed directly to his bill. This will put Congress into Tuesday and the clock running out.

There is no guarantee that Speaker Boehner can deliver enough Tea-Publican votes for the Reid compromise bill when it comes back to the House on Tuesday after his epic failure of leadership this week.

A "clean" one page federal debt limit increase can still be passed in both chambers of Congress before the clock runs out. But it will take the agreement of the leadership of both parties. ThinkProgress Vote Count Finds 267* House Votes For A Clean Debt Ceiling Hike.

And despite having said that he will not resort to Section 4 of the 14th Amendment, if the clock runs out because of the failure of Congress to act due to Tea-Publican intransigence, President Obama may invoke his emergency powers to enforce the Constitution of the United States to prevent a catastophic debt default and harm to the American economy. See, Does the 14th Amendment preclude defaulting on the national debt? and (Update) Does the 14th Amendment preclude defaulting on the national debt?.

UPDATE: Well, that didn't take long — the Boehner bill was quickly dispatched with in the Senate on a bipartisan vote of 59 to 41, with 6 Republicans joining all 43 members of the Democratic Caucus.

But "septuagenarian ninja turtle" Mitch McConnell is forcing Sen. Reid to bring his bill directly and has invoked the cloture rules. Sen. Reid will have to find 7 Republican senators to get to 60 votes for a cloture vote early on Sunday morning. You read that right — "septegenarian ninja turtle" Mitch McConnell is actually filibustering in the Senate inside the two minute warning before the debt clock runs out. There is no limit to the outrageous recklessness and fiscal irresponsibility of the GOP leadership.

Moreover, "septegenarian ninja turtle" Mitch McConnell is refusing to negotiate a compromise with Sen. Reid, insisting that he will only negotiate with President Obama. This is an unprecedented insult to the Senate Leader and to the institution of the Senate. Just who the f**k does this obstructionist asshole think he is? This stunt just increased the risk of default.

We have already seen the "Boehner drop" in the markets this week due to his failed leadership in the House. "Septegenarian ninja turtle" Mitch McConnell's stunt is going to cause the "McConnell drop" in the markets beginning Sunday night when the Asian markets open if no agreement has been reached on Sunday. If his obstructionism and filibustering leads to a default because of running out the clock, the resulting economic panic should be named after Mitch McConnell for his failure of leadership in the Senate.

UPDATE – SATURDAY: The TanMan, Weeper of the House John Boehner, continues to be a dick by bringing up meaningless symbolic votes. Debt Debate Drags On As Reid Seeks Republican Votes | TPMDC:

House Republicans struck a partly symbolic blow against the debt plan of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) by voting it down Saturday afternoon. It's partly symbolic because the vote happened before the Senate moved on the bill… [Boehner just couldn't wait to be a dick]. The House vote was highly partisan, with a final vote of 236 opposing, and 173 in favor.

* * *

As it stands right now, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid doesn't have the votes to move his plan to raise the debt ceiling in the Senate today. In a letter announced on the Senate floor by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) Saturday afternoon, 43 Republicans refused to support the plan, leaving Reid three votes short of the 60 he needs to achieve cloture.

If the Reid plan is to pass and hit the House for a vote that could conceivably get the final bill on the President's desk before the default deadline expires, then Reid ideally needs a successful vote by around 1am on Sunday morning. Either that, or to be allowed to proceed with the vote on the basis of a simple majority. Currently the Republicans are demanding it be done as a 60 vote super-majority. [Filibuster].

This letter means that vote would [may] currently fail. McConnell suggested that the whole process start over following that event, calling on President Obama to once again engage in direct negotiations to get the debt ceiling raised.

However, the Republicans are not wholly united on this issue, and Reid still hopes to win some waverers in the hours ahead. Four moderates — Sens. Scott Brown (MA), Lisa Murkowski (AK), Susan Collins (ME) and Olympia Snowe (MA) — did not sign the letter. Yesterday, Brown said he'd be willing to vote for Reid's plan as is. Reid would need three more votes to pass, and he may try to do that in the hours ahead via tweaks to his proposal.

If Republicans of good conscience — are there any left? — are willing to break the filibuster, Sen. Reid's deficit reduction plan can pass the Senate in the wee hours of the morning. The ball then would be back in Boehner's court to find enough Republicans of good conscience to vote with a majority of the Democratic Caucus to pass the bill. If Tea-Publicans sustain the filibuster in the Senate in bad faith, or if Boehner cannot muster enough votes for passage in the House, time will have likely run out. The world's markets will begin to react Sunday night. Monday will be a wild day.