The lunatics are running the asylum

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Rachel Maddow has done several segments over the past year making a convincing case that the TanMan, Weeper of the House John Boehner, is not very good at his job. I have posted that the TanMan is the weakest Speaker of the House in the modern era. Boehner just keeps making the case that we are both correct.

Steve Benen writes at the Political Animal – When ‘a done deal’ unravels:

All the pieces were in place. Senate leads from both parties agreed to a temporary compromise that looked pretty sensible: Dems would get a two-month extension of the payroll tax break and a clean extension of unemployment benefits, while GOP lawmakers would get an expedited decision on the Keystone XL pipeline. It was quickly approved with overwhelming, bipartisan support, 89 to 10.

What about the House?. . . None other than House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) seemed relieved, calling the bipartisan compromise a “good deal” and a “victory.”

But Boehner then took this victory to his caucus, and as we’ve seen many times before, the Speaker quickly realized his job is to take, not give, orders from his right-wing members.

The House Republican leader on Sunday flatly rejected a short-term, bipartisan Senate measure to extend a payroll tax break and unemployment insurance, setting the stage for a bitter year-end Congressional collision and the potential loss of benefits for millions of Americans.

In an interview on “Meet The Press” on NBC, Speaker John A. Boehner said his members broadly opposed the two-month extension that passed the Senate 89 to 10, believing that it would be “just kicking the can down the road.” 

Boehner added, “It’s pretty clear that I and our members oppose the Senate bill.”

Except, it’s not clear at all. Why is it, exactly, that Boehner called the compromise a “good deal” and a “victory” on Saturday, only to say he opposes the deal on Sunday? For that matter, as recently as Friday, the Speaker said he’d demand an expedited decision on the Keystone XL pipeline as a condition for the payroll break. Democrats agreed to meet the demand, and Boehner’s House Republicans still won’t pass it.

Indeed, the House will likely take up the Senate deal later today, simply to prove it can’t pass the lower chamber. In the bigger picture, it’s pretty amazing: House Republicans are going to kill a bipartisan compromise on a middle-class tax cut, which just passed the Senate 89 to 10, the week before Christmas.

* * *

[T]he bipartisan agreement that would send everyone home for the holidays has, as the NYT put it, “given way to chaos.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) issued a statement this afternoon suggesting Boehner has limited options. Political Animal – Reid, for now, won’t play Boehner’s game:

“My House colleagues should be clear on what their vote means today. If Republicans vote down the bipartisan compromise negotiated by Republican and Democratic leaders, and passed by 89 senators including 39 Republicans, their intransigence will mean that in ten days, 160 million middle class Americans will see a tax increase, over two million Americans will begin losing their unemployment benefits, and millions of senior citizens on Medicare could find it harder to receive treatment from physicians.

“Senator McConnell and I negotiated a compromise at Speaker Boehner’s request. I will not re-open negotiations until the House follows through and passes this agreement that was negotiated by Republican leaders, and supported by 90 percent of the Senate.

“This is a question of whether the House of Representatives will be able to fulfill the basic legislative function of passing an overwhelmingly bipartisan agreement, in order to protect the economic security of millions of middle-class Americans. Democratic and Republican leaders negotiated a compromise and Speaker Boehner should not walk away from it, putting middle-class families at risk of a thousand-dollar tax hike just because a few angry Tea Partiers raised their voices to the Speaker.” 

As for Boehner’s demand that policymakers work on a year-long extension, instead of a two-month extension, Reid said Democrats would continue to work on this goal, just as soon as the House approves this short-term measure and gives policymakers time to work on a new agreement.

Senate Dems, in other words, are trying to, in effect, “jam” House Republicans — they passed a bill and left, giving the lower chamber a choice between passing the Senate bill or raising taxes on 160 million Americans.

Complicating matters a bit, some Senate Republicans are siding with Dems on this, telling House Republicans to cut the nonsense and pass the extension.

The next move will probably be a House vote on the Senate bill, which Republican leaders expect to fail. Indeed, that’s largely the point — they’re bringing it to the floor so GOP members can kill it and send a message to the Senate that the bipartisan compromise isn’t far enough to the right.

Will House Republicans really kill a bipartisan compromise on a middle-class tax cut, which just passed the Senate 89 to 10, six days before Christmas? Or are there 26 GOP lawmakers in the House willing to vote with House Democrats to do the responsible thing? I seriously doubt it.

As Greg Sargent noted this morning at The Plum Line:

This latest impasse reveals just how extreme, intransigent, self-indulgent and hostile to basic norms of governing the Tea Party wing has become. It’s as if compromise itself must be opposed, for its own sake, regardless of what any particular compromise contains. This is another case in which the public is seeing with total clarity the disastrous results of giving the Tea Party a seat at the governing table.

The House is set to vote on the measure, and will likely defeat it, Monday night. House Republicans may come up with a new version, but Democrats insist the Senate won’t come back to approve any new version, so the way forward is unclear. For now, Dems insist that returning would be throwing Republicans a lifeline: If the tax cut expires, it will be solely their fault, because the Senate has passed a deal, and the President is ready to sign it.

The lunatics are running the asylum.