What happens now is anyone’s guess. Boehner said last night, and will reportedly say again at a 10:00 am press conference this morning, that it is up to President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to pass their own fiscal cliff solution. The Boehner-Obama negotiations appear to be over. There will be no grand bargain.
The more likely scenarios are that we either go over the fiscal cliff, or Boehner agrees to vote on a Senate bill which extends the current tax rates for everyone making under $250,000. Either way, by choosing to abandon their leader in the middle of high stakes negotiations, House conservatives have assured that whatever final deal does get done, whether its before or after January 1st, it will have to be passed with a majority of Democratic votes. By refusing to compromise at all, House conservatives have completely marginalized themselves, making them effectively irrelevant, not just for the fiscal cliff negotiations, but for at least the next two years as well.
