The House failed to pass a stopgap continuing resolution to fund the government today, as Democrats mostly held together to reject the bill, which included a cut to a clean vehicles loan guarantee program to offset disaster relief funding.

The reason that the minority Democrats had leverage at all was because House conservatives refused to vote for the stopgap bill, which funds the government for two months in Fiscal Year 2012 at the level of spending agreed to in the debt limit deal. Those 48 conservatives wanted to break the deal and cut spending to a lower level than the agreed-upon amount. And John Boehner couldn’t whip them to his side.

What the Republicans are doing is saying that a natural disaster must cause government accounts to drop. It assumes there’s a finite amount of money available for spending, and if a hurricane blows through your house, someone else, in this case hybrid vehicle manufacturers, have to pay for it. Now, the Chevy Volt had nothing to do with the hurricane. But they’re bearing the burden for rebuilding after the storm.

This is completely unprecedented in the history of the nation and defies common sense; that’s why Reid is fighting it, to make sure it doesn’t become a new normal.

Last night, it didn’t look as if the Senate would be able to get the clean extension of both the FAA authorization and the surface transportation authorization before a deadline of today. Tom Coburn was holding up the bill in a fruitless crusade against bike paths. It’s a long story.

The attempt to meet looming deadlines and avoid shutdowns of part (or all) of the government resembles the aftermath of a car wreck right now. It’s unclear whether the Senate can move the broken-down vehicles off the road in time to let the traffic move through.

It was only a matter of time that the Republicans’ newfound desire to lower the volume and not take hostages to achieve their aims would fall apart. We apparently have gotten through the FAA authorization extension, the surface transportation extension, and the debt limit vote without incident, but things are starting to break down. John Boehner is looking to hold back some reserve of funds for the FY 2012 budget, in order to force policy changes:

The White House estimates that Hurricane Irene caused $1.5 billion in damages, virtually assuring that they will have to ask for a disaster relief supplemental sometime in the next couple months.

This recent debt ceiling deal proves the best way for the Republican Party to get what they want from the Democrats and President Obama is to take metaphorical hostages. At this point for the GOP to try negotiating for new laws through the traditional legislative process would be beyond stupid given how effective the tactic of disaster legislating has proven to be, time and time again. The Republican Party should simply refuse to ever deal with Obama unless they have a pending crisis to hold hostage.

Five Republicans – Mark Kirk, Lisa Murkowski, Scott Brown, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins – voted with every Senate Democrat against the correction. In another correction given a vote in the Senate, Democrats defeated an effort to repeal the health care law on a straight party line vote, with all Democrats opposing and all Republicans supporting.

The House just passed a bill that funds the government through September 30, despite 59 Republican defections. The bill would not have passed without Democratic votes; a majority of Democrats voted against it.

Pelosi says she would have Democrats step in if Boehner fails to find 218 votes today. And this actually sets up the next fight. Boehner can then go to negotiations with his concern about the more right-leaning elements of his caucus, saying that many of them bolted on the 2011 budget bill and that many more will do the same on the debt limit vote without concessions. It’s a calculated tactic.