"Chill out everybody. I've got this."
I know the government is shut down and default is looming, but don't sweat, because House Speaker John Boehner has got everything under control:
Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) told CNN “it does not appear that there are the votes” to pass the plan House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) laid out Tuesday morning.
Dent also suggested that the GOP-controlled House may not send over a bill at all.
“I suspect at this point, the House must regroup, and determine what bill we’ll send over to the Senate — if any,” Dent said.
But other House Republicans are
less pessimistic:
“The leaders are giving us one more chance to get something passed out of the House before the Senate does its thing,” says a veteran House Republican. “I think we’ll get it through, at least that’s my sense of things now. We want to do something that marks our position, so we don’t end up swallowing whatever terrible bait the Senate casts our way. Now, I know, and the majority of us know, that this is futile. But believe me, even getting to 218 on this plan will be an achievement.”
Sure, they recognize the futility of doing whatever it is that they're doing because they realize that whatever they pass will be nothing more than yet another hopeless ransom demand, but everybody should cheer them on, because even if it's doomed, at least they're doing something, and in their world, doing something is "an achievement."
Maybe one of these days House Republicans will realize the way you end the government shutdown and avoid default is by voting to end the government shutdown and avoid default, but until that day comes, don't worry, because Boehner or someone else in the House Republican conference has got a handle on things.
12:59 PM PT: About 45 minutes ago, GOP Rep. Devin Nunes on CNN said he didn't know whether Republicans had enough votes to pass a bill. Twenty seconds later he said: "To be a conservative you need to know how to count."