[wildbill]

There is no deal. The Republicans only think they have a deal.

Experience has shown that the Democrats do not keep their word on deals.

They are like Lucy with the football, telling Charlie Brown to trust her that this time she won’t pull the football out of the way.

[Bruce Campbells Chin]

I think Boehner knows the Democrats will not follow through with this deal. My guess is that he thinks that the refusal to make promised spending cuts will backfire badly on the President and Democrats next summer, and tell the American people they can't be trusted to cut spending.

I think Boehner all along never believed that real cuts were going to happen, and so has been using this entire crisis to set things up for 2012. Including the vote on the balanced budget. He knows it will go down, but he really wants to get Democrats on record as having voted against it, becasuse it tends to be extremely popular with voters.

Whehter or not all this has the desired political effect next fall remains to be seen.