Balancing Act

House Speaker John Boehner bowed to tea party congressmen on Friday when he agreed to add a constitutional balanced budget amendment to his plan to solve the debt ceiling crisis.

The move came 20 hours after Boehner was forced to abandon a vote on his proposal when he realized he could not get it through the Republican-controlled chamber.

Now the two-stage vote will include the constitutional amendment, announced House Rules Committee chairman, Rep. David Dreier.

...But even if the vote passes in the House it has virtually no chance of getting through the Senate and President Barack Obama would almost certainly veto it.

A national balanced budget amendment, you recall, will force Americans to choose. Want to go to war with Iran? Pull out from Iraq and Afghanistan first! More CIA? Less FBI! If you want subsidies for the oil companies better stop spending so much on repairing highways.

Of course, what will actually happen is the clock will run out, Obama will invoke the 14th Amendment to raise the debt ceiling, and all we'll remember is that Republicans can't even agree with each other enough to pass a law. And they're running for election again next year.