Reset Your Shutdown Clocks

-- Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., in a letter to colleagues about why he is voting against a fiscal compromise package

House Republicans didn’t produce a compromise spending package to fund the government for the remaining 25 weeks of the fiscal year until 2 a.m. today.

That means that under transparency rules, the soonest that the House can have a vote on the plan is Thursday, the same day that the current stopgap measure, passed Friday night in service of the larger deal, expires.

The margins for error are shrinking.

There were no major surprises in the spending package, except for the end of a backup engine for the F-35 fighter. The $3 billion engine, produced at a plant adjacent to House Speaker John Boehner’s district, was considered protected from on high, despite opposition from Defense Secretary Robert Gates. By goring his own ox, Boehner will enhance his clout in seeking concessions from others.

But laid out in black and white, the details of the plan may cause some conservatives in the House to blanche. Policy specific cuts will be galling to some on the right

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