No Dealing On The Debt Ceiling, Part 46

How bad are we screwed on the debt ceiling?  The GOP is hopelessly split on their own plan.

As a sign of just how reluctant conservatives are to throw in their lot with House GOP leadership and pass their plan to avoid default, Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) suggested to reporters Tuesday that the votes aren't there yet.

"We're going to have some work to do to get it passed," Boehner said at a brief press conference in the lobby of RNC Headquarters. "But I think we can."

The reality is that Orange Julius's latest Fail-O-Matic is so bad, he's having to rewrite the thing after the Congressional Budget Office looked over it and laughed him out of the room.

Moments after the Congressional Budget Office released an analysis finding that the House Republicans' debt limit bill falls far short of one their key goals, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) decided to rewrite the legislation.

"We promised that we will cut spending more than we increase the debt limit - with no tax hikes - and we will keep that promise," reads a statement from Boehner spokesman Michael Steel. "As we speak, Congressional staff are looking at options to re-write the legislation to meet our pledge."

What it means is the vote on the bill will be delayed until tomorrow, and even then there's absolutely no guarantee that Boehner can get it passed.  And even if he does, the White House will shoot it down and the Senate won't pass it either.

In other words, Orange Julius may have done President Obama a huge favor and has eaten up so much clock that the Reid-McConnell "escape hatch" deal from earlier this month may be the only way out before Tuesday's deadline.

If Boehner's plan fails to pass the House, Orange Julius's political career is as fried as his fake tan.  And I won't shed a tear.  Josh Marshall:

I mentioned before that it's not clear whether John Boehner even has the votes for his own plan in the chamber he runs. In other words, will House Republicans even support Boehner's plan, the plan of their nominal leader, let alone anything that would pass the Senate or garner the president's signature?

At that point everyone should be able to see there aren't two sides here to tango, we're listening to the sound of one hand compromising.

The scenario being floated informally now by a lot of observers is that if and when we come to that point Republicans in the Senate, Wall Street and just a lot sane people in general who haven't come off the sidelines yet or haven't really been paying attention just say: Dude, you don't have a full deck, this is over.

In which case Obama gets his clean debt ceiling raise, and the GOP/Tea Party civil war begins in earnest.  Wouldn't that be excellent?