Cliff report

By Mustang Bobby

As we draw ever closer to January 1, the talks on the budget are beginning to sound less and less like serious fiscal management and more like a Roadrunner cartoon:

The clearest indication that House Speaker John Boehner's final fiscal cliff ploy backfired came late Wednesday when he began modifying his so-called Plan B.

Plan B, recall, is legislation to lock in the Bush tax cuts for all incomes up to $1 million — a fallback plan he hopes will strengthen his negotiating hand with President Obama.

But late Wednesday, faced with a daunting whip count, Republican leaders did two things. First, they began entertaining the notion of tacking spending cuts on to the bill — to entice skeptical House conservatives to provide badly needed votes. (Their skepticism is understandable: Why should they vote for legislation designed to strengthen Boehner's hand in deficit reduction negotiations they don’t support in the first place?)

Second, and crucially, they scotched a tandem plan to vote down legislation, supported by most Democrats, extending the Bush tax cuts for income up to $250,000.

That was the biggest tell of the day: Boehner can't deep-six that bill, because he may need to pass it -- with help from Democrats -- if fiscal cliff negotiations with Obama fall apart completely.

Meep, meep.