Debt Ceiling Vote: Tea Party Gives Speaker Boehner Something to Cry About

UPDATE: At around 6:20 PM EDT, the House passed, by a vote of 218-210, a revised version of the Boehner bill to raise the debt ceiling, which Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has promised to reject. The revised version includes a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced federal budget, and requires the amendment to be sent to the states for ratification before the debt ceiling can be raised again in Feburary. The constitutional amendment provision was what it took for House Speaker John Boehner to rally enough Tea Party-allied members of Congress to vote for the bill. Despite today's legislative victory, Boehner's hold on the speaker's gavel remains tenuous, his position weakened by the revolt of right-wing members on the speaker as he attempted to pass a bill last night that did not include the constitutional amendment.

When, after the Democrats' stunning defeat in the 2010 mid-term congressional elections, Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, was elected speaker of the House, he wept tears of joy, marveling at how the greatness of America enabled so humble a soul as he to reach such a lofty position. Boehner's emotion was understandable (if a bit overwrought): he believed in that moment that he was now in charge of the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, one of the greatest legislative bodies in the world. He was mistaken.

The nation, according to the U.S. Treasury Department, is a mere three days from defaulting on its debt, an event that could wreak havoc on the global economy if it is allowed to happen. If the current wrangling over a debt-ceiling deal -- essentially a deal that would allow Treasury to pay the bills that Congress has already incurred -- proves the weakness of President Obama in the face of the Republican majority in the House, it also shows the weakness of the speaker before the power of his own members, especially those allied with the Tea Party movement.

That Boehner was forced to postpone last night's scheduled vote on a debt-ceiling bill, one that never stood a chance of passing the Senate, does not augur well for the speaker's prospects at holding onto his job. Analysts suggest that in seeking to bring his bill to the floor, Boehner merely wanted to have passed a bill he could wave in Democrats' faces as proof that his Republicans were serious about lifting, however briefly, the debt ceiling -- thus relieving the nation of the default danger Republicans have conferred upon it, if only Democrats would do the "patriotic" thing and get the bill through the Senate. But after a day of arm-twisting his members, and a public promise that he would muster a win, Boehner failed to get the votes.

Some suggest that such a vote sets the stage for Republicans to negotiate a debt-ceiling package with Reid, who has proposed a bill that also features deep cuts and no new revenue, but would push the next requirement for a raising of the debt ceiling until after the 2012 presidential election.

The victories of the hard-right politicians supported by Americans For Prosperity and other right-wing organizations yielded Boehner the speaker's gavel; today their distaste for Boehner's deficit-reduction plan, which would lift the debt ceiling until the end of the year in exchange for $900 billion in spending cuts that include Medicare outlays, threatens his future as speaker. Even though the bill contains no provisions for new revenue, which was a sticking point for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Tea Partiers in an earlier proposal, last night's withholding of votes from the measure by some in the GOP caucus seems to be more a statement on Boehner's leadership than on the measure itself.

For Democrats, the Boehner bill is a non-starter. As The New Republic's Jonathan Chait describes it, "Boehner's offer is like a kidnapper who offers to give you back your child in return for $100,000 and your other child." Not nearly enough for certain Tea Party Republicans, apparently.