Joe Biden wrapped up his two-day trip to Iraq today, promoting a new phase in US-Iraqi relations. But that phase, contrary to popular myth, will include US military troops on the ground throughout the country.

We knew that Joe Biden was scheduled to visit Turkey and Greece this week, but while he was in the region, he swung over to Iraq, apparently to renew discussions about a “continued American presence in the country.”

As expected, Senate Republicans blocked the state fiscal aid bill that would have put as much as 400,000 teachers and public safety officials back to work. All 47 Senate Republicans voted against cloture on the motion to proceed on the bill. In addition, three members of the Democratic caucus said no. We knew that Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson would be no votes, but Mark Pryor also decided that a 0.5% surtax on every dollar over $1,000,000 for Sam Walton and the Walton family wealthy Americans was too much to ask. This means that the final tally on the bill was 50-50. In a sane world where majority rules, Vice President Biden would have cast the tie-breaker and 400,000 teachers and fire fighters and cops would have jobs to look forward to. As it is, the Senate is an undemocratic institution, and states still suffering with depressed tax revenues will have to continue the rounds of layoffs that have been a lead weight on the economy.

Last week, we saw the return of “stop complaining” — and now it looks like “we suck less” is back, too.

The bombshell dropped alongside the debt limit deal yesterday, aside from Gabrielle Giffords’ return to Congress, was Joe Biden telling a group of House Democrats that the President was prepared to “invoke the 14th Amendment” in the event of the debt limit failing to pass. I’m not sure entirely what he means by that, but there are enormous implications.

Mohamed El-Arian has this right: “Unemployment will be higher than it would have been otherwise. Growth will be lower than it would be otherwise. And inequality will be worse than it would be otherwise.”

The ultimate loser in this whole thing is the economy. And expecting a “pivot” to save it is a fool’s errand.

The headlines will blare today about the rough appropriation of an Australian soap opera that occurred in the White House last night, with Eric Cantor’s ego deeply bruised and glasses fogged, after the President reportedly said “I have reached the point where I say enough. Would Ronald Reagan be sitting here? I’ve reached my limit. This may bring my presidency down, but I will not yield on this… Eric, don’t call my bluff. I’m going to the American people with this,” and walked out of the room. Problem for Cantor is that the meeting was wrapping up anyway, and it wasn’t as angry and abrupt as he made it sound, others in the room allege.

Just because Mitch McConnell wants to surrender on the debt limit, doesn’t mean that the House GOP is going along with him. In a closed meeting today, Eric Cantor, who I guess is Speaker-in-Waiting at this point, introduced a series of slides that he claims are the “Democratic options” on the debt limit.

Over the past few months the political discourse in Washington has been pulled rightward at a mind-boggling pace. Given how narrow and bizarrely focused the debt ceiling debate has become, regardless what the final package contains, it is assured to be a massive victory for the right.

Hearing the word “compromise” at all in association to the debt limit talks is a bit of a revelation, so I suppose there should be some hope that something gets done after all. But take a look at this article from Lori Montgomery and Paul Kane. It posits that Republicans are considering a compromise on their demands for all spending cuts. The compromise is that they’ll allow a different kind of spending cut.