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So with a few tweaks in language and a promise to do the unthinkable, Boehner may have gotten permission from his Televangelists to pass his bill. The House reconvenes at 2PM EST.

TPM: Practically Delusional

To secure enough votes from his own members for his plan, Speaker Boehner is amending it to basically turn it into Cut, Cap, and Balance Lite.

Here's the key new provision that is apparently going to win enough GOP votes to pass the bill:

The debt ceiling would be raised immediately but not by enough to get the government through next year. To get the second debt ceiling increase, House Republicans want a balanced budget constitutional amendment to pass both chambers first and be referred to the states.

Never going to happen, but that's where we are. It makes you wonder if there's any compromise plan that can get through this House. That's why, even though my gut says there's no way the U.S. is stupid enough to default, I still can't see a clear, viable way out of this.

Paul Ryan admits on FOX that passing a Balanced Budget Amendment is a pipe dream:

RYAN: What I never really agreed with is the idea that we would expect Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi to deliver 40 [and] 15 votes from Democrats for our version of the Balanced Budget Amendment. You know, I just never thought that was realistic, to demand Democrats vote against their conscious for our version of the Balanced Budget Amendment. So I just never thought that would work.

Ryan’s political calculus is of course accurate, but it’s noteworthy coming from the GOP’s chief number cruncher and the staunchly conservative author of the Medicare-ending Republican budget. The current GOP version of the BBA is a disastrous idea that even leading conservatives have rejected. There’s no way it could achieve the two-thirds majority needed in both houses of Congress to pass, let alone before the Aug. 2 deadline to raise the debt limit. But as House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said yesterday, many members of own caucus are willing to let the deadline pass in the hope that the ensuing economic “chaos” would force Democrats to switch their votes.

The Tea Party compromise is to try and change the Constitution. Some Originalists, huh? This will never happen.

Meanwhile Harry Reid tells Republicans they have until Midnight at the Oasis to get something done.

You have until midnight.

That's the message Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has conveyed to Senate Republicans. If they want any further input on his debt limit bill, they need to speak up by then. Otherwise, he'll touch off a process that could result in passage of his plan on the afternoon of August 2.

"I have invited Sen. McConnell to sit down with me and to negotiate in good faith, knowing the clock is running down. I hope he will accept my offer," Reid said on the Senate floor Friday. "I know the Senate compromise bill Democrats have offered is not perfect in Republican' eyes. Nor is it perfect for Democrats."

Chuck Todd was on with Andrea Mitchell and blamed the Tea Party Caucus for holding up the debt ceiling and for much of this chaos although he wouldn't come out and name them. He said something like one segment of one party is mucking it all up. Typical Villager double speak.

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The man who confessed to killing 68 people in Norway last week says he bought the ammunition clips used in his shooting spree from the U.S by mail order.

Anders Behring Breivik wrote in his 1,500-page manifesto that he spent $500 for 10 30-round clips.

Clips with more than three rounds are banned from sale in Norway.

Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), who introduced legislation to limit high-capacity ammunition clips following the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), told Politico that U.S. lawmakers should be ashamed.

"We're sending a death warrant to other parts of the world," she said. "Unfortunately now, internationally, it's known that you can get here, buy your guns, buy your large magazines, and you're not going to have any problem"

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Laura Ingraham has been a big Tea Party supporter and proponent of the position that Republicans should not pass a debt ceiling bill that is a short-term/mini-deal or else it should be viewed as unserious.

Talking to Newsmax on July 6th, she said this:

Conservative radio talk show host Laura Ingraham tells Newsmax that Republicans should stand firm against a “mini-deal” that would raise the debt ceiling with only “cosmetic cuts” in federal spending.

She also says Washington legislators who would consider such a settlement show that they are “completely unserious” about dealing with the federal debt and “saving America.”

As much as I disliked Obama's Grand Bargain idea, it supposedly cut $4 trillion out of the deficit. That's not small potatoes. Biden's group also had massive spending cuts along with closing some tax loopholes and Harry Reid's plan, which should be considered a small deal because it only lasts until after the 2012 election, is a spending-cuts-only bill.

Who has the worst mini deal of all? John Boehner. Guess which bill Laura Ingraham is supporting now after vehemently opposing a mini-deal? John Boehner's. She said so while she was guest-hosting Bill O'Reilly's show yesterday. Bill is in LA doing PR and wound up calling in to give his analysis since Boehner's bill couldn't even get voted on Thursday. And what did Bill do? He called out Ingraham because she has been on The Factor toeing the Tea Party line all along. But now she's falling in line with the rest of the GOP hierarchy. (Rough transcript)

O'Reilly: First of all it was a good interview with the guys up top, but I noticed a little tone change from your posture last week where I was anchoring and you were the interview subject and now you're the anchor..ummm. I saw a little softening of the hard line position. Did I pick that up wrong? Have you changed a little bit?

Ingraham: No, no I don't think you're picking it up correctly. My point now is that they've gotten the best deal they can get with the leverage that they've exercised. If the Tea Party just agreed to several days ago which was my point last week then they wouldn't have gotten the deal right now.

O'Reilly: You think that now the Tea Party should say, OK, we're going to go with Boehner.

Ingraham: I think the Tea Party, yes, absolutely because this is the best deal they're going to get

.

Can you trust anything she says? That's not what Ingraham's been saying all along. Laura grilled Rep. Steve King later in the show for saying that the Tea Party should wait until after the deadline has passed so then the ,arkets can collapse and they can get the Cup, Cap and Balanced budget amendment passed easily. She was very hostile to that idea, literally calling him crazy if he thought that was remotely realistic.

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Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) Thursday attacked "accounting tricks and budget gimmicks" in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-NV) plan to end the debt ceiling crisis.

"We assume we're going to be fighting this war for 10 more years, with over 100,000 troops in Afghanistan and oh, gosh, wait, we're going to withdraw our troops in 2014," Ryan said in a speech on the House floor. "$1 trillion in savings."

"I've got a better idea. Let's pass a bill to cover the moon with yogurt that will cost $5 trillion today. And then let's pass a bill the next day to cancel that bill. We could save $5 trillion," he continued.

"Wait, I've got a better idea. Our debt is $14 trillion. Let's come up with a new plan to spend $14 trillion, then rescind it the next day and let's save $14 trillion. This stuff is fiscal fantasy. You can't make this stuff up, Mr. Speaker."

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Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) Thursday attacked "accounting tricks and budget gimmicks" in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-NV) plan to end the debt ceiling crisis.

"We assume we're going to be fighting this war for 10 more years, with over 100,000 troops in Afghanistan and oh, gosh, wait, we're going to withdraw our troops in 2014," Ryan said in a speech on the House floor. "$1 trillion in savings."

"I've got a better idea. Let's pass a bill to cover the moon with yogurt that will cost $5 trillion today. And then let's pass a bill the next day to cancel that bill. We could save $5 trillion," he continued.

"Wait, I've got a better idea. Our debt is $14 trillion. Let's come up with a new plan to spend $14 trillion, then rescind it the next day and let's save $14 trillion. This stuff is fiscal fantasy. You can't make this stuff up, Mr. Speaker."

BWAHAHAHAHA. After Andrew Breitbart filed to have Shirley Sherrod's lawsuit dismissed on fairly ridiculous grounds, the court ruled Wednesday that Sherrod had standing to go forward with it.

TPMMuckraker:

Reached on his cell phone by TPM, Breitbart said he hadn't yet heard of the judge's decision but would take a look and get back in touch if he had any comment.Sherrod sued Breitbart over an out-of-context video he posted of her on his Big Government website which made a story she told about overcoming racial prejudice sound like she was advocating for discriminating against whites.

Breitbart told TPM back in March that he stood by everything he's said about Sherrod and that he was excited for the discovery phase of the lawsuit.

I'm so looking forward to the discovery phase myself. I'd love, for instance, to find out who Breitbart's anonymous editor was.

So John Boehner couldn't manage to whip 216 votes for his compromise bill, and Nancy Pelosi held the Democratic caucus in line, and the morning dawns with Capitol Hill in a tizzy, which is exactly what the Tea Party has hoped for:

Speaking on conservative radio host Laura Ingraham’s show this morning, Boehner agreed that failing to raise the limit before the deadline would be devastating, and said the “chaos” plan won’t work when asked by Ingraham what’s motivating the recalcitrant Republicans:

BOEHNER: Well, first they want more. And my goodness, I want more too. And secondly, a lot of them believe that if we get past August the second and we have enough chaos, we could force the Senate and the White House to accept a balanced budget amendment. I’m not sure that that — I don’t think that that strategy works. Because I think the closer we get to August the second, frankly, the less leverage we have vis a vis our colleagues in the Senate and the White House.

It would really be nice if someone would quit thinking about strategy and agendas and start thinking about what's good for the country. Chaos? Really?

Yes, really. This is the lunacy that is the Tea Party. Courtesy of Judson Phillips of Tea Party Nation, a few select quotes:

The real problem with Boehner and all of these soft, squishy big government Republicans is they see compromise as the goal.

No. Earth to John Boehner. Victory is the goal. Compromise is a tool that gets you to the goal. If you do not have victory as your goal, you will never win. If compromise is the goal, it really does not matter what agreement you reach. As long as the compromise is reached, no matter how bad it is, you have done your job.

In the last day, since I wrote Boehner must go, I have received a number of emails from people who say, “You are splitting the Republican party.” “You are fracturing the conservative movement.” “You are damaging our cause.”

No, I am not. John Boehner is.

John Boehner will not stand up for conservative beliefs or anything else, except possibly his afternoon cigarette. I am tired of Republicans who make up the surrender lobby. I am tired of Republicans who claim they believe in our cause yet will not stand and fight.

Judson Phillips frames it perfectly. There is no room for any thinking but their thinking, there is no room for anyone to co-exist or compromise alongside them. Because they think their way is the only way. Phillips closed with this:

When I got involved in the Tea Party two and a half years ago, I didn’t do it because I was bored. I didn’t do it because I had nothing better to do. I didn’t do it because I said it would be cool to be involved in a grassroots movement. I did it because I believe we should win. I did it because I believe conservatism is the best course to guarantee freedom in this Country.

Welcome our new American Taliban overlords. No room for anything but their One True Truth.

Jon Stewart took a shot at the House Republicans for what their logic might have been when deciding to use a scene from The Town to inspire their members to vote for John Boehner's debt ceiling bill.

Judson Phillips, the CEO of Tea Party Nation, which has been shunned by many conservatives because of their ethics (or utter lack thereof), wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post saying that John Boehner's plan is crazy and that he should step down as leader of the House Republicans. He also made the irrational case that America is Greece. You've heard it all before.

However, on Fox Business he was asked to comment on a report wherein Nancy Pelosi said this:

“What we’re trying to do is save the world from the Republican budget . . . We’re trying to save life on this planet as we know it today.”

A bit of hyperbole to be sure, but if the GOP did implement their plans of a balanced budget amendment, the working class in America will surely suffer great harm.

So instead of just responding like an adult, he attacked Nancy Pelosi in a typical conservative ad hominem and misogynistic way.

Phillips: "I Think It's Clear The Botox Has Gotten To Her"

Odious is as odious does.

Here's more on Tea Party Nation convention turmoil, if you've forgotten:

A Tea Party convention billed as the coming together of the grass-roots groups that began sprouting up around the country a year ago is unraveling as sponsors and participants pull out to protest its expense and express concerns about “profiteering.”

The convention’s difficulties highlight the fractiousness of the Tea Party groups, and the considerable suspicions among their members of anything that suggests the establishment.

The convention, to be held in Nashville in early February, made a splash by attracting big-name politicians. (Former Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska is scheduled to deliver the keynote speech.) But some groups have criticized the cost — $549 per ticket and a $9.95 fee, plus hotel and airfare — as out of reach for the average tea partier. And they have balked at Ms. Palin’s speaking fee, which news reports have put at $100,000, a figure that organizers will not confirm or deny.

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[h/t Heather]

True. Earlier this week I had a little tussle with Pastor Rick Warren because he made a statement (later acknowledged to be mean-sounding) about how the 50% who paid no taxes were perfectly ok with having the 50% who did pay more.

I jumped on his claim because it's one Fox News likes to make all the time too, and it's without justification. However, a new study does prove that less than 50% of taxpayers pay federal income tax, and shows why. I'll bet the answer won't surprise anyone here.

Donald Marron:

Low incomes (or, if you prefer, the standard deduction and personal exemptions) account for fully half of the people who pay no federal income tax.

The second reason is that for many senior citizens, Social Security benefits are exempt from federal income taxes. That accounts for about 22% of the people who pay no federal income tax.

Tax Policy Center (PDF):

About 46 percent of American households will pay no federal individual income tax in 2011, roughly half of them because of structural features of the income tax that provide basic exemptions for subsistence level income and for dependents. The other half are nontaxable because tax expenditures— special provisions of the tax code that benefit selected taxpayers or activities—wipe out tax liabilities and, in the case of refundable credits, result in net payments from the government. Most important of those tax expenditures are provisions that benefit senior citizens and low-income working families with children. While those factors particularly affect lower-income households, different provisions eliminate taxes for other households. Itemized deductions and credits for children and education are more important for middle-income households, while the relatively few high-income nontaxable households benefit most from above-the-line and itemized deductions and reduced tax rates on capital gains and dividends.

The next time you hear someone sneer about all the deadbeats in this country who don't pay income taxes, you might want to suggest that if they earned more, they'd pay more.

Oh, and with regard to Rick Warren....We're going to be having a more extensive discussion about the whole thing in a couple of weeks. Stay tuned.