Over the last two years, Republicans have voted for tax cut after tax cut for the rich, while insisting on sharp cuts to programs for the poor and middle class. Without a trace of self-consciousness, they have insisted that this is all in the name of fiscal responsibility, all the while ignoring that their giveaways to the rich far outweigh their petty and vindictive cuts for the rest of us. Surely, sooner or later someone had to call them out on this hypocrisy, right?

That’s why, as a preemptive measure, Speaker John Boehner has invented a brand-new metric by which Republicans will now measure the deficit. Boehner’s new metric is “spending-driven debt,” as reported by Ezra Klein:

I got a weird e-mail from John Boehner’s office yesterday. “No Reason to Wait,” it said. “Let’s Address Spending-Driven Debt Now.”

So what’s “spending-driven debt”? I’m not exactly sure. But there are a whole lot of references to it in my inbox. Later that same day, I got another e-mail from Boehner’s office about “the spending-driven debt that threatens job creation and economic growth.” And on May 4, I got an e-mail from Boehner’s office saying “those looking for work can’t find it because ObamaCare, our spending-driven debt, and the threat of tax hikes are making it harder for small businesses to hire.”

What is “spending-driven debt?” That’s easy. It’s a way for Republicans to measure success only by how much they can cut from programs that benefit the poor and middle-class, while absolving the super-rich of any responsibility to make sacrifices themselves.

The GOP will approve hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts for the super-rich without batting an eye, but they’ll fight tooth and nail to make sure programs like affordable student loans are “paid for.” They view programs for the 99 Percent as a zero-sum game, in which help for some must be offset by pain for others. When it comes to the 1 Percent, though, there are apparently unlimited funds.

This has been the standard Republican policy since George W. Bush took office. After more than 10 years, though, people are starting to ask why the 1 Percent never need to sacrifice. Boehner’s “spending-driven debt” is an effort to re-frame the debate to get us to stop asking that question.

The House GOP tried really hard to avoid passing a middle-class tax cut. Most likely, they would have jumped at the chance to give that money to the rich, but they just could never get interested in working for the middle class. Eventually, though, a frustrated John Boehner reluctantly agreed to extend the payroll tax credit for the middle class.

Before Boehner caved, Karl Rove advised Republicans that this fight was not a good one for them:

Republicans “have lost the optics on it,” Rove told Fox News, “the question now is how do the Republicans get out of it.”

Rove is certainly right on that count. The “optics” are absolutely horrendous when doing something to help the 99 Percent is seen as a serious defeat for your party. Boehner and the GOP fully deserve the beating they’ve taken on this issue, for turning a no-brainer into a months-long battle royale. It’s truly amazing how hard they fight to keep the middle class down.

The House was supposed to vote last night on a Senate bill to extend a middle-class payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance benefits, but Speaker John Boehner chickened out at the last minute. Why? Because some Republicans didn’t want to vote against the middle class, but Boehner wanted to make absolutely sure the bill didn’t pass.

In a stunning move, the House Republican leadership postponed a vote planned for late tonight on a two-month extension of the payroll tax holiday and unemployment benefits that passed the Senate with a huge bipartisan majority. Republicans planned to reject the Senate bill today in a gambit to force the upper chamber to come back from recess and pass a longer term extension. But it seemed House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH) caucus wasn’t as united as he expected, as there was “a desire among some rank-and-file lawmakers to cast an affirmative vote rather than a negative one” favored by Boehner, Politico reports.

Now, Boehner may resort to procedural tricks to help ensure his desired outcome when the House votes on the package tomorrow. The House will most likely vote on a motion to reject the Senate bill, instead of regular up-or-down vote. That way, Republicans won’t have to outright vote against the payroll tax holiday and Boehner doesn’t risk the measure accidentally passing in case he miscounts his votes. [Think Progress]

Is it just me, or is Boehner going to absurd lengths to screw the middle class? This sort of procedural nonsense is the worst sort of cynicism, and it’s aimed at preventing a tax cut that’s important for the consumers that drive our economy.

The two-month extension of the payroll tax cut that Boehner is blocking isn’t at all ideal; it should be done for a full year. However, it’s the Republicans’ own fault that we have to do it this way. And now they won’t even give the middle class two stinking months.

Yesterday, Republicans rejected a measure that would have extended unemployment benefits and a middle-class payroll tax cut for two months and allowed Congress to recess. The GOP is widely being ridiculed for the vote. And they’re deserving of ridicule — but not for this particular vote. Though I rarely say this, I agree with John Boehner:

“It’s time to just stop, do our work, resolve the differences and extend this for one year,” Mr. Boehner said. “How can you have tax policy for two months?”

This is very true. Congress should just get their act together and pass a one-year extension. When tens of millions of Americans are hurting from the recession, I don’t see why Congress should find that difficult.

For all Boehner’s apparent earnestness, though, let’s not forget that it’s the Republicans who have held up the package in the first place, insisting that it be paid for with cuts to Medicare and unemployment benefits. That’s why they deserve our ridicule. Not for voting against a temporary extension, but for once again putting the rich above the rest of us.

The Republicans don’t believe a massive tax cut for the rich needs to be paid for. A small tax cut for the middle class, though? That must be fully paid for with benefit cuts for the middle class.

In a last-ditch effort to save his speakership last night, John Boehner led the House GOP in passing an insane debt-ceiling bill that would have led to a credit downgrade, then forced a default, all in the span of six months. Thankfully, the Senate killed it almost immediately.

Folks, you’ve been watching this debate play out for months now. Can any of you honestly say you think it would be a good idea for us to go through it again in a few months? No way. Boehner’s bill would not only have forced a default in six months, it would have caused even more turmoil in financial markets as investors watched Congress continue to struggle to do its job.

Now that the Senate has killed this dangerous and foolish bill, maybe we can finally get on with the business of actually raising the debt ceiling.

After being handed a massive defeat by his own party that put our economy at risk, John Boehner has decided that the only way to get his debt-ceiling passed is to make it as partisan as possible. Instead of attempting to pass a bill suitable to Democrats, Boehner went all-in on a bill that neither Barack Obama nor the Senate will ever support.

The latest incarnation of Boehner’s “plan” would still only raise the debt ceiling for six months and lead to a credit downgrade. What’s more, it would hold Congress hostage by putting insane conditions on the second debt-ceiling vote. The new bill would only allow the debt ceiling to be raised a second time if a two-thirds majority in both houses approved sending a dangerous constitutional amendment to the states. That will never happen, so the Boehner plan would force a default — which, of course, is what many Republicans want.

I’ve run out of words to describe just how irresponsible this is. To appease the Tea Party Default Caucus, Boehner is pushing a credit downgrade now and default in six months. His plan would wreck the economy just as surely as doing nothing at all.

Last night, in a stunning display of incompetence, GOP Speaker John Boehner failed to get his party to approve a hike in the debt ceiling. Despite hours of arm-twisting — House members were summoned to Boehner’s office one by one for him to demand their support — the vote was eventually cancelled.

It’s worth noting that there were two reasons for opposition to Boehner’s bill. Democrats voted against it because it wouldn’t really do anything. It would require another vote on the debt ceiling by the end of the year, forcing us to go through this same nonsense all over again. It wouldn’t avert a credit downgrade. It also probably didn’t help that Boehner, trying to win the support of his own caucus, actually publicly bragged to a right-wing talk host that Democratic leaders hated his plan, even while trying to claim that he was trying to reach a bipartisan solution.

So that’s the Democrats. Why wouldn’t Republicans, who are the majority in the House, back the plan? Their reasons are a lot worse.

A significant number of Republicans simply believe we should default on our debt and plunge the economy into a depression. Others say we’ll have enough money to pay our creditors; if that means we have to stop paying for Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid, then so be it. They were trying to end those programs anyway. Finally, others insist on even deeper cuts, like cuts to Pell Grants, and they’re holding the economy hostage.

Democrats will vote to support a responsible increase in the debt ceiling. But can any increase pass the House when Republicans refuse to even support Boehner’s partisan far-right bill?

I’ll have a bit to say about the President Obama’s speech, either tonight or in the morning. But did you hear John Boehner’s response to the President’s call for compromise? Wow. It looks like the GOP isn’t the party of “morning in America” anymore, that’s for sure.

In case you missed it, let me highlight the details for you:

• Our economy is completely screwed, and I blame the president.
• The president is a tyrant who has singlehandedly destroyed our budget and economy.
• The only solution is massive sacrifices from the poor and middle class.
• The House will not compromise with the President. If he wants a deal, he can sign our bill.

Boehner’s plan is clear after that speech. He wants to convince Americans that we’re heading off a cliff. And if they don’t buy it strongly enough, then he’ll push us off the cliff just to sell it.

Over the weekend, Barack Obama admitted just how far he was willing to bend to Republican hostage-takers:

Essentially, what we had offered Speaker Boehner was over a trillion dollars in cuts to discretionary spending, both domestic and defense. We then offered an additional $650 billion in cuts to entitlement programs — Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security.” [Politico, via Firedoglake].

Obama didn’t just want to cut trillions of dollars in spending, he wanted to take $650 billion from the old, sick, and poor. Medicare and Social Security recipients have paid into the programs their entire lives, and Obama wanted cuts. Medicaid recipients are among the neediest, most vulnerable Americans, and Obama wanted cuts.

The Republicans turned him down, though, as usual. They were happy, no doubt, with his plans to make the old, sick, and poor sacrifice. But in return, Obama asked that the very rich also sacrifice. And that, of course, is absolutely unacceptable to today’s Republican party.

So John Boehner walked away, sending tremors rippling through financial markets. It’s yet another sign — if you needed another — about what the modern Republican party stands for. They don’t stand for fiscal responsibility. They don’t stand for the middle or lower class. They don’t stand for a health economy. They stand for the rich. That’s it, and that’s all.