Boehner messed up. Vote postponed a day.

No small oopsie.

Boehner was shooting for $1.2B in cuts over the next decade in his plan.  When he gave it to the CBO to look over, the cuts only added up to $850B.  That meant Republicans had to go back to the drawing board, and the vote that was scheduled for Wednesday has been pushed back to Thursday.

It gets worse.

Because Reid's plan is to vote after Boehner's bill presumably fails, that puts Reid's bill up for a vote on Friday.  In turn, the House would have to vote some time during the weekend on the Senate's version, but House Republicans have already said no way to Reid's plan.  So it comes down to negotiations.

It'll end up being Boehner's job to convince enough Republicans to peel away from the conservative majority, to vote alongside House Democrats, to get Reid's bill passed...say Sunday.  Those changes will then need to be reincorporated into the Senate version, and the Senate will have to vote on it once again...say Monday.  Then the President has to sign it....Tuesday, D-Day (Default-Day)?

To make it work, one has to sacrifice...a lot.

It may still simply die in the House.  Boehner would have to fall on his own sword.  By turning off the majority of Republicans in the House (with his attempts to pass the Reid bill in the House), he will end up losing his Speaker's job (the conservative majority will look elsewhere and vote in their choice for a new Speaker), and maybe even his re-election in 2012.

So far, Boehner has not taken the opportunities to peel away from Tea Party Republicans and lead the House out of this with a true bipartisan bill that would get the support of the Senate and White House.

Ironic, isn't it?

And no irony is lost on the US Chamber of Commerce.  After spending millions to get those Tea Party Republicans elected, they are now struggling to convince those same Republicans on the importance of raising the debt ceiling.

And it all makes the Republican lock-step vote for Cut Cap and Balance bill ironic as well.  Silly Republicans...did they really think this would end in their favor?