John Boehner Is The Saddest Man Alive

by evanmcmurry

The GOP’s opening salvo on the fiscal cliff negotiations* is so radical it wouldn’t even pass the House. The House Of Representatives. The one that set itself on fire in the summer of 2011, cost us our triple-A rating, etc., that one. Via Weigel:

The “balanced plan” is the Ryan budget, which can’t pass the Senate. The sequester replacement takes all the savings from defense and applies them to social programs. It lost 16 Republican votes when it passed the House in May, so not only is it doomed in the Senate, it probably couldn’t pass with the smaller House GOP majority taking office in six weeks.

Most likely, this is an indication that Boehner hasn’t figured out how to change his rhetoric to reflect the post-2012 election political landscape. Which is ironic, as he only went this far to the right because the 2010 tea party-infused election petrified him into his current position. Now he’s stuck repeating empty proposals his own chamber won’t endorse. This guy can’t win for losing.

* It’s not a cliff.