Boehner and Reid: No budget deal

Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid just appeared in DC to comment on the budget negotiations. Both said that no deal has been reached but they’re still negotiating. The president has already said he will veto a one-week CR even if both houses pass it, which among other things would stop paying the troops in the field.

This has become a gigantic game of budget chicken. Both sides have their policy preferences built into this fight, but the bottom line remains that the nation would not be in this situation of the Democrats had passed a budget when they owned both houses of Congress. Contra the cockamamie idea that “if we had more women in Congress, we would have a deal by now” that was just proffered on Fox, Nancy Pelosi’s total failure to be anything but a bitterly partisan hack when she was Speaker of the House has led the nation to this impasse. Budget bills originate in the House as per the Constitution. She failed to do her most basic job as a leader. Since that time, the GOP took over the House and passed a budget six weeks ago. The Democrats in the Senate have not acted on that budget, because they too are led by a partisan ideologue, Sen. Harry Reid. The Democrats are egging this fight on because they think it will bring their mojo back, showing once again that they’re putting partisan hackery above the troops and above the country. It’s who they are.