We knew this was coming but now it's official.
House Republicans were not able to agree on a budget blueprint that would guide appropriations bills for the next fiscal year in large part because the Flying Monkey Freedom Caucus voted to oppose Speaker of the House Paul Ryan's budget. The Freedom Caucus decided Ryan's budget was insufficiently cruel.
Speaker Ryan offered this spin on the situation while the chairman of the Freedom Caucus had a different take.
"Part of the problem is we're a victim of the success of the fact that we have appropriation numbers already in law," Ryan explained. "We already have an agreement in law and that has taken pressure off of the budget situation."
"The only thing worse than not doing a budget is spending more money," said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.
To say that your failure makes you a 'victim of success' is one (hilarious) way of looking at it I suppose.
I'm sure this will be written off as just another procedural snafu that most of the political media will barely pay attention to, but what happens over the next 7 months will tell us a lot about Speaker Ryan and the GOP.
This isn't just any budget the House Republicans couldn't agree to. It's Paul Ryan's budget. It's the budget Paul Ryan intends to campaign on this year even if their presidential nominee opposes it.
Ryan can't convince his own flock in the House to pass his budget but he's taking it on the road as if he were running.
The only Democratic equivalent I could think of is if Nancy Pelosi decided to hit the campaign trail with her own budget that would compete with the Democratic nominee's platform. That sounds absurd and it will never happen, but that's what Speaker Ryan is doing to his party.