GOP Budget? Don't Hold Your Breath...

Apparently House Republicans are torn between offering an "aspirational" budget – read: a partisan agenda with no chance of getting signed into law – and sticking with their well-worn politics of obstruction and dead-end attacks on the Affordable Health Care Act.

From National Journal:

Some Republicans say an "aspirational" budget filled with conservative policy could draw more support from the conference and help in the election. "I think what he's putting on the floor would be more an ideal" budget, said Rep. John Fleming, a Louisiana Republican.

But others say it could be a liability with thorny details that detract from broader, more conceptual and successful Republican attacks over the economy and Obamacare. Moreover, Republicans don't necessarily have to touch the budget issue, because the budget agreement set top-line numbers for 2015.

Wasn't it just yesterday that Speaker Boehner pointed at the President and accused him of failing to deliver on his legislative agenda?

As Steve Benen described it:

Reasonable people can debate the merits of competing proposals or policy strategies, but for Speaker Boehner to suggest President Obama is uninterested in governing, lacks ambition, and intends to do nothing for the rest of the 2014 is so head-spinning that it's genuinely alarming Boehner was able to say the words out loud without laughing hysterically.

Let's briefly review reality in case it still matters. John Boehner claimed the Speaker's gavel three years ago, and since that time, he's racked up zero major legislative accomplishments. While Obama has at times been desperate to get something, anything, done with this Congress, Boehner has tried and failed to lead House Republicans towards anything resembling governing.

The result has been the least productive Congress since clerks started keeping track several generations ago. Thanks to Boehner's "leadership," Capitol Hill is establishing new benchmarks for ineptitude, giving the "do-nothing Congress" phrase an updated definition to reflect levels of ineffectiveness few thought possible before 2011.