Nine questions that are really one:
- How insane is it to craft a deal to satisfy the Tea Party and then when the Tea Party balks, ask Democrats to make up the difference?
- If Boehner is finally at the point where he’ll turn to Dem votes, why not just pass a clean bill after all?
- In other words, if it turns out Democrats were the ones needed to pass this bill, why weren’t THEY in the driver’s seat all along?
- If the Tea Party doesn’t vote for the Boehner plan, whose votes were really in the balance here?
- How can we blame the Tea Party for their tactics, when the Democrats keep incentivizing the use of those tactics?
- How can we expect this Democratic Party to stop another extension of all the Bush tax cuts?
- If Boehner pursues a party-line vote, why should any Democrats bail him out if he fails?
- If the GOP leadership asserted all along they would not default, why give them anything?
- What would have happened if congressional progressives announced from the get-go they would not support a debt-ceiling hike with entitlement cuts and without new revenues?








