Tick-Tock The Congressional Clock Winds Down

++Those eagerly awaiting a Syria vote from the House,forget about it. Yesterday they said they might get around to it in two weeks. Well, there are only 8 days left before another recess. 

++The House agenda is packed with things that may never see the light of day. Since tomorrow is Benghazi Day for the Right, over 170 House members are co-sponsoring a bill to create a special investigative subcommittee on the issue. Reading the New York Times this morning, it seems the administration has run into difficulties getting Libya to arrest those in the sealed indictment of the DOJ. However, the Pentagon is preparing drone strikes. What happens to the vaunted committee when the culprits are captured or destroyed?

++Eric Cantor is trying to dance about on the debt ceiling issue. He says that by continuing the sequester the Obama Administration will have cut all the discretionary spending increases since 2008 so no problemo. He is arguing to his Caucus that there is little wiggle room for demanding more cuts.

++Tan Man Boehner, whose staff announced he was retiring in 2014, says he will get Democrats to vote on defunding Obamacare or delay its implementation for a stopgap budget. The measure would be stripped from the budget by the reconciliation process with the Senate. But Boehner wants to boast he got Democrats to vote against Obamacare.

++The GOP's Farm bill hasn't materialize yet. Remember the Senate passed one last year and the GOP had to withdraw theirs.

++Eric Cantor said he didn't know whether the House would even get around to submitting their piecemeal immigration reform. If Boehner had lifted the Hastert rule, we would have immigration reform now and the Senate version would pass.

++The Administration took the war against Obamicare "navigators" seriously, so instead of the non-profits having to fill out the lengthy forms and answering insane questions, HHS has done this for them with a sharp accompanying letter to cease interfering with the "navigators" lawful work.

++So debt ceiling raised--perhaps with a promise that Senate begin work on tax reform. A temporary budget--with or without some meaningless Obamacare repeal or delay. The Farm Bill--who knows. Immigration Reform--probably not. And I doubt Syria will come to a vote.

++Events yesterday caused Harry Reid to postpone the Syria vote until after President Obama addresses the nation. The Senate vote has gotten trickier because some of the "no's" may go "yes" on the idea that this would put more pressure on Syria to surrender their chemical weapons.