Tonight, House speaker John Boehner wanted to force the hand of Barack Obama and the Democratic leadership by bringing his bill to solve the fiscal cliff — titled Plan B — to a vote. There was only one problem: he couldn't even get enough Republican support for the bill to make a vote worthwhile. That rendered Boehener essentially powerless, and it led to the walking Creamsicle from Ohio saying the Serenity Prayer on the House floor:
"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."
According to Politico, Boehner nearly cried as well, but it's possible that he was just thinking of a golden retriever fetching a tennis ball at the time. The rest of the GOP openly disobeying Boehner is good news for people who think it's hilarious when John Boehner fails, but it's also bad news for people hoping to see the fiscal cliff problem solved (a Venn diagram that may be completely overlapping at this point).
Boehner's grandstanding means that Congress will go into recess with no solution and less than two weeks until a combination of tax raises and spending cuts threatens to shoot the U.S. economy into the abyss. Congress is reportedly going to be on 48-hour notice to return to Washington in order to get a resolution hammered out, which is a process that will now likely be relished by Obama and Harry Reid.
Boehner, on the other hand, might want to have a copy of the Bible handy.
[via Politico, image via Getty]