Thus, it’s not even clear the debt-ceiling threshold is actually a politically credible threat anymore for Republicans, and they capitulated on it, albeit for a shorter period of time, last time it came up – so why pick the Obamacare fight over it rather than government funding? One possibility is that this is an attempt to thoroughly snuff out the Cruz-Lee strategy, which was focused on using the CR (although one of the main proponents, Heritage Action, makes it clear in defining the strategy that they’ve thought of using the debt ceiling too). Another is that Boehner is trying to split up his fights: As he explained in the call Jonathan reported on below, he knows the president and Democrats don’t want to stick to the sequester funding levels Republicans prefer, and that will require some effort in the CR fight, even if it’s for just a short-term resolution (though each month at sequester levels, of course, makes them mroe likely to stick and more expensive-looking to reverse). If so, Boehner either wants to keep the sequester levels of spending more than he wants to fight Obamacare, or he sees keeping the sequester as a more practicable accomplishment than delaying the president’s health-care law. In any case, for better or for worse, leadership is planning to use its better chip, it seems, on spending rather than Obamacare delay.