Wonkbook: The House’s debt-ceiling bill is…wow

By Ezra Klein and Evan Soltas, Published: September 26 at 8:23 

(AFP/Getty)

John Boehner isn't even trying to pretend his House of Representatives is a sane place anymore.

The House GOP's debt limit bill -- obtained by the National Review -- isn't a serious governing document. It's not even a plausible opening bid. It's a cry for help.

In return for a one-year suspension of the debt ceiling, House Republicans are demanding a yearlong delay of Obamacare, Rep. Paul Ryan’s tax reform plan, the Keystone XL pipeline, more offshore oil drilling, more drilling on federally protected lands, rewriting of ash coal regulations, a suspension of the Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to regulate carbon emissions, more power over the regulatory process in general, reform of the federal employee retirement program, an overhaul of the Dodd-Frank financial regulations, more power over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s budget, repeal of the Social Services Block Grant, more means-testing in Medicare, repeal of the Public Health trust fund, and more.

It's tempting to think that this is Boehner teaching his conference a lesson. They told him what they wanted, and he's going to let them have it -- good and hard. House Republicans are walking into the debt-ceiling negotiations with an opening bid that makes them look ridiculous. This looks like an Onion parody of what the House's debt-ceiling demands might be. It's a wonder it's not written in comic sans.

But this is really the conference teaching Boehner a lesson. He had so little support to raise the debt ceiling at all -- and so little trust from his members that he had a strategy to maximize their leverage -- that this is the bill he had to present. At this point, Boehner either can't stop them, or he's too exhausted to try.