FOLKS: There will be No. Grand. Bargain. Period, end of file.

[geek tragedy]

11. I trust Reid, but I don't know how much leverage he actually has.

The House Budget is $967 Billion. That's also exactly what the Sequester limit is.

They're not going to agree to increased spending or increased revenue, so the only thing that's left to negotiate is which programs starve and which ones get a few more crumbs.

Supposedly, the Republicans care about restoring defense spending, but that turned out to be mostly untrue, as one of the few merits the Teahadis have is they don't care about the MIC.

I'm rather pessimistic. The BCA was one pig of an awful deal Obama cut. Forget the stuff about Wall Street and drones--his disastrous fuck-up in 2011 is going to be the biggest stain on his presidential legacy, as it will haunt us for a decade.