As America wakes up this morning, everyone (who’s still paying attention) is wondering what is going on, concerning the Debt Crisis Negotiations.

According to reuters.com, reporting from their usual, decidedly Liberal, point-of-view:

Urgent efforts to avoid an unprecedented U.S. debt default suffered a new blow on Thursday when some fiscally hardline Republicans blocked a budget deficit plan proposed by their own congressional leaders.

After hours of trying to get enough votes, the Republicans who control the House of Representatives put off action for the night and scheduled an emergency meeting for Friday morning.

The Republican infighting further delays any compromise with Democrats to stop the countdown toward Tuesday when the government says it will run out of money to pay all its bills.

Lawmakers must lift the government’s $14.3 trillion borrowing limit by Aug. 2 or risk a devastating default and downgrade of the top-notch credit rating that helps make U.S. debt a pillar of the global financial system.

There was speculation House Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, may revise his plan to attract more votes from rebels who want bigger cuts in spending than the roughly $900 billion over 10 years he has proposed.

“Republicans have taken us to the brink of economic chaos,” House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said. “The delay must end now so we can focus on the American people’s top priority: creating jobs and growing the economy.”

Also, from reuters.com:

House Republicans will meet at 10 a.m. on Friday (1400 GMT) to assess their options after they delayed a vote on their debt-ceiling bill due to a lack of support, Representative Mike Pence said on Thursday.

Republican leaders have been unable to convince some of their rank-and-file members that this bill is their best option to win deep spending cuts and avert an August 2 default.

So who are the Republicans standing in the way of Speaker John Boehner’s bill, which is going to die a horrible death in the Senate, anyway?

Per NPR’s blog, It’s All Politics:

After raising expectations for a vote that was seen as a test of his persuasive powers as speaker, Boehner was forced to order a strategic retreat.

The message many analysts are bound to take away from this episode is that the tail is wagging the dog to a degree — a large degree — in the House Republican conference, namely members linked to the Tea Party, including freshmen.

Those members have little allegiance to Boehner. In fact, many of them eye him suspiciously as a card-carrying member of the Washington establishment that’s part of the problem, not the solution.

They felt burned by the budget deal Boehner negotiated with President Obama earlier this year to prevent the government shutdown in March, that Boehner told them there were more spending cuts in that package than there actually were.

They vowed they wouldn’t be fooled again and that was reflected, in part, in Boehner’s failure to get enough votes for his debt-ceiling bill by the time of the scheduled vote, 6 p.m. ET Thursday.

It should be said that not all House Republicans with Tea Party connections were against Boehner. Some held a news conference for his bill Thursday. Unfortunately for Boehner, not enough supported him.

So the question is, now what?

Now what?, indeed.

Our Big Mouth on the Right, Rush Hudson Limbaugh, put it very succinctly yesterday, when he said:

…the Republicans think that by dumping this thing in Reid’s lap, the Democrats are going to end up looking like they don’t compromise. The Democrats are a step or two ahead here. That is, if they’re not all on the same page and just playing us for saps anyway. However, as Red State points out here: “All the Republicans keep telling us that this is the best they can hope for,” that the Boehner two-step is the best they can hope for. That’s what they keep telling us: “We’ve got to do it now. We’ve got the best we can possibly get.” So how is it the best they can hope for when it is going to get less votes in the House and Senate than either Paul Ryan’s plan or Cut, Cap and Balance. They’re going backwards on this.

Did the Maha Rushie nail it on the head, as usual? And where has the President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama, been this week after having his spectacular hissy fit, last week?

Perhaps, he’s been meeting with his academic pinhead and political hack advisers, formulating a plan.

In order to futher fuel your speculative fire, check this out:

Per politico.com:

Rep. James Clyburn and a group of House Democrats are urging President Barack Obama to invoke the 14th Amendment to raise the debt ceiling if Congress can’t come up with a satisfactory plan before the Tuesday deadline.

Clyburn, the third-ranking House Democrat, said Wednesday that if the president is delivered a bill to raise the debt ceiling for only a short period of time, he should instead veto it and turn to the phrase in the Constitution that says the validity of the U.S. government’s debt “shall not be questioned.”

“If that’s what lands on his desk, a short-term lifting of the ceiling, the debt ceiling, he should put it on his desk next to an executive order,” Clyburn said at a press conference. “He should sign an executive order invoking the 14th Amendment to this issue.” The Associated Press reported that he was applauded when he suggested the idea at a caucus meeting earlier in the day.

“I believe that something like this will bring calm to the American people and will bring needed stability to our financial markets,” Clyburn added, noting that President Harry Truman did it once during his presidency after Congress was unable to pass a bill to raise the debt ceiling.

Meanwhile, the solution to all this, Cut, Cap, and Balance, sits, dejected and lonely, on Harry Reid’s desk.

As Mike Myers, playing the Jewish lady on Saturday Night Live, would say:

Talk among yourselves.  I’m verklempt.