He can’t find one….
His House member ‘s won’t let him….
His promises to the crazies continue to bite him…..
And his President is calling him out…..
Republicans are wound up in contradictions: They’ve vowed to balance the federal budget over a decade while preserving the single biggest drivers of that debt — namely, Social Security and Medicare. They’ve called for historic drops in federal spending yet many want more Pentagon money than ever. They’re eyeing cuts to entrenched domestic programs such as food and housing assistance that risk alienating politically vulnerable incumbents whose votes they need….
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Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), a former GOP budget chief, summarized the goals for his party by saying that Republicans should write “a ‘Hippocratic’ budget, that does no harm to our majority,” but one that also stays “responsible enough” to force a reckoning over spending.
Womack also warned, accurately, of the political risks in a budget that reaches too far:
“That likely becomes the next 30-second television ad against you.”
The lack of cohesive GOP vision so far is an ominous sign as McCarthy and his team wade knee-deep into talks on their own budget, which — along with Biden’s blueprint — raise the curtain for this year’s multiple high-stakes spending dramas in Washington. And there’s already tangible proof of House Republicans’ struggle, as their timetable for a budget release slips later into the spring, following Biden’s own budget delay.
Republicans and Democrats alike are most worried about the brewing fight over the nation’s debt limit, which could get ugly as a new speaker navigates one of the House’s narrowest majorities in decades with the U.S. credit rating hanging in the balance. And while the GOP’s budget resolution is unlikely to contain an exact prescription to resolve the debt limit, it would still be the first real movement in Biden and Republicans’ long-frozen discussion on where to go next….