Here's what makes the sense of impotence even worse: John Boehner is a reasonable man, a dealmaker trapped in a time of trench warfare, where positional bargaining is carried to its gridlocked extreme. He's so tied up by the 50 or so radicals in his conference that it requires ditching the Hastert rule to pass anything. He also tied up by the essential illogic at the intersection of Republican policy and messaging.

If more tax revenue is collected from a lower tax rate, courtesy of closed loopholes, it is now defined as a tax hike by the conservatariat. This is topsy-turvy world, Grover's paradise. On the one hand, Boehner's conference is united by the sense that deficit and debt is generational theft. On the other hand, he can't be seen a giving any ground on revenues as part of a plan to deal with paying down the deficit and debt.

So he says we need to cut spending -- while trying to distance himself from the mammoth spending cuts that are kicking in.

Boehner says, "The issue here is spending. Spending is out of control."

And then, in the next sentence: "There are smarter ways to cut spending than this silly sequester that the president demanded."