Lucy tees up the football again

How many times have we seen this before?????

Speaker John Boehner told House Republicans this afternoon that the GOP’s upcoming budget will balance the federal books in a decade...

Boehner’s commitment is a signal to House conservatives that the speaker is listening to their demands. Behind the scenes, backbenchers have been pushing Boehner and Eric Cantor, the majority leader, to endorse a 10-year balanced budget.

On Wednesday, insiders say, most conservative lawmakers will begrudgingly back a three-month extension of the debt limit. But before Boehner could finalize the whip count, he needed to make this fiscal assurance in return.

Translation: in order to provide rhetorical cover for yet another increase in the debt limit, the Speaker engaged in yet another round of kabuki dancing.  Does anyone really believe the budget will be anywhere close to balanced in 2023?  Even worse, does anyone believe most Americans will even remember this 'pledge' by the next year?

We're out of road down which to kick the can.   I'll believe a legislator is serious about fiscal responsibility only when they pledge to balance the budget by the end of their current term, and go on record saying they will not run for reelection if they fail in that paramount task.

Passing a budget is Congress' main job.  Since they haven't even managed that in four years, it's silly to think they'll suddenly become responsible.  Here's a thought: how about we dock them four years' worth of salaries and office expenses for failure to perform?  Since we're suddenly in a crisis mode about fiscal cliffs and sequestration, I know who *I* vote to have feel the effects first...