The GOP Calendar of Chaos Gets More Chaotic

House Republicans' complete dysfunction is throwing America into a Calendar of Chaos.  Consumed by their leadership melodrama, the House GOP has totally ignored the urgent issues facing the country – and now, critical deadlines are piling up.

But it gets worse for hard-working Americans: on his way out, Speaker Boehner is promising to make the calendar even more dangerous and chaotic for the American people.  By delaying leadership elections and prolonging this intraparty soap opera, House Republicans are yet again threatening the economy with their signature GOP-manufactured crises.

POLITICO:  "The delay will…push the GOP leadership elections up against a looming vote to raise the federal government's $18 trillion-plus debt ceiling."

AP:  "That suggests ongoing tumult in the weeks leading to the floor vote, even as Congress is confronting a weighty to-do list, starting with raising the government's borrowing limit in early November."

Washington Post:  "The leadership unrest comes as high-stakes legislative deadlines continue to pile up. Transportation spending authority is set to expire Oct. 29, the federal debt ceiling will be reached in early November, and a stopgap appropriations measure expires Dec. 11, raising the possibility of a ¬holiday-season government shutdown.

The Fiscal Times:  "Outgoing House Speaker John Boehner has ripped up the script for how Congress will tackle the next debt ceiling deadline… by handing off responsibility for electing the second and third posts on the totem pole, Boehner has injected a new unstable element into an already volatile situation."

CQ:  [G.William Hoagland, senior vice president at the Bipartisan Policy Center], "said he fears the ‘delay in having a majority leader and whip in place also means that – particularly as it relates to the debt limit – that it will be pushed up to the cliff in a big and dangerous way.'"

Speaker Boehner attempted to justify this misguided delay by arguing that it would "ensure House Republicans have a strong, unified team to…focus on the American people's priorities."   But the American people aren't fooled: they know that House Republicans are choosing to focus on their own chaotic, intraparty power-struggle – instead of the urgent deadlines facing the nation.