I’m not sure how else to describe what House Republicans have been doing for the last three days.

Set aside the acting-out, the ideological myopia, and the general chaos. Those speak for themselves. Any objective analysis of the latest Boehner proposal comes down to one simple question: If passed as is, would it preserve the AAA credit rating of the United States? The answer is quite clearly a resounding “No.”

The credit rating agencies have left little doubt that they need to see a substantial, not a piecemeal, increase in the debt ceiling and dramatic spending cuts. Boehner’s old plan did neither. His new plan does even less.

At the end of the day, that’s all that really matters. The House Republican plan on its face doesn’t meet its own stated objective. End of story.

David Kurtz

David Kurtz is Managing Editor and Washington Bureau Chief of Talking Points Memo where he oversees the news operations of TPM and its sister sites.