Tit For Tat

This is what divided government means in twenty-first century America: You put our bill in the hospital, we put yours in the morgue:

By Jasmius

In an unforgiving display of partisanship, the Republican-controlled House approved emergency legislation Friday night to avoid an unprecedented government default and Senate Democrats scuttled it less than two hours later in hopes of a better deal.

"We are almost out of time" for a compromise, warned President Barack Obama as U.S. financial markets trembled at the prospect of economic chaos next week. The Dow Jones average fell for a sixth straight session.

I bet you couldn't tell that was from an Assholiated Press story, couldja?

Like I said before, this was inevitable, because Bammer doesn't want a deal, he wants another crisis he can exploit. This is why Senate Dems will never, EVER even consider any bill that comes out of the GOP House.

And for Tea Partiers who have obstinately convinced themselves that the "GOP establishment" is a traitor to the cause of fiscal sanity, Senate 'Pubbies have an answer, and it's a hum-dinger:

43 Republicans in the U.S. Senate have signed a letter, released on Saturday, saying they will not vote for a Democratic plan to raise the debt limit in a sign that the measure does not have the support it needs to advance in Congress.

Democrats need at least seven Republican votes to clear a procedural vote in the 100-seat chamber. That vote is scheduled for 1 a.m. EDT (0500 GMT) on Sunday.

Senate Republicans will block Majority Leader Harry Reid’s debt-limit plan this weekend, said a spokesman for Minority Leader Mitch McConnell as the partisan impasse over deficit reduction continued days before a threatened default.

“It will be defeated,” spokesman Don Stewart said today in Washington. He said Reid’s measure likely won’t be the vehicle for a final agreement. Any deal would probably start anew with action in the House and then the Senate would begin its work, he said.

Given that the latest Donk spin has been that the Boehner compromise was a "waste of time" and should be ignored in favor of Dirty Harry's trojan horse, I would say that should be music to Tea Pary ears. But heck, what does this RINO candy-ass know?

UPDATE: If a deal is going to get done, it will probably look like this:

• 2.8 trillion in deficit reduction with $1 trillion locked in through discretionary spending caps over 10 years and the remainder determined by a so-called super committee.
  


• The Super Committee must report precise deficit-reduction proposals by Thanksgiving.



• The Super Committee would have to propose $1.8 trillion spending cuts to achieve that amount of deficit reduction over 10 years.



• If the Super Committee fails, Congress must send a balanced-budget amendment to the states for ratification. If that doesn’t happen, across-the-board spending cuts would go into effect and could touch Medicare and defense spending.



• No net new tax revenue would be part of the special committee’s deliberations.

Seriously, folks, are we going to get a better deal than this? As Eeyore, no wild-eyed optimist he, sagely notes:

I expect plenty of hyperventilating at the term “Super Committee,” but it’s basically the kind of ad hoc committee that Congress can authorize at any time. It sounds a lot like the BRAC process used by Congress to identify military bases for closure. The prohibition on net tax revenue gains is a big, big win for Republicans if it holds. I should note that Jimmie Bise in his post believes that the second round of cuts might be actual cuts; if so, then this is an even bigger win.

If this does happen, it will have been orchestrated by the very same principled conservative but politically realistic Republican leadership that Tea Partiers have been hell-bent on stringing up for the past few days. And if it doesn't, the Speaker can point to his going-the-extra-mile compromise as proof that any economic fall out from any default will be entirely the fault and doing of the Regime, not the GOP.

You see, my friends? The Cryin' Man might just know what he's doing after all.

[cross-posted at Hard Starboard]