NPR's Weekend Edition this morning had a report on one aspect of why the fiscal bluff might be hard to resolve. David Welna says the House GOP created three rules that will get in the way.
* The Majority of the Majority. No bill will come up for a vote in the House unless a majority of GOP members are in favor of it. This prevents passage of any bill in which Dems might peel off 40 of the over 200 GOP House members.
* Any increase in the Debt Ceiling (which will be hit a couple months after this fiscal bluff mess is sorted out) must be matched by an equal cut in spending.
* The No New Taxes pledge.
That leaves Boehner in a delicate position. He may not be able to cut a deal with Obama without breaking at least one rule. If he breaks a rule his position as Speaker may be in jeopardy.
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If memory serves it was these same three issues that created the fiscal cliff in the first place. Boehner seemed ready to make a deal with Obama when this came up last year, but his new freshman class of tea party members prevented him from closing the deal by threatening his job as Speaker. They postponed any negotiation in the hopes that they would win the presidential election and have a more friendly face to deal with. That didn't work out well for them and now it will be interesting what their response will be.
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