WHAT THE WEST WING IS READING - Ruth "The Truth" Marcus column on the WashPost op-ed page, "Boehner's unreality check": "It is all but impossible to get this done in the available time. It certainly can't be accomplished on Boehner's unbending, no-new-taxes terms. And if the speaker truly believes that it would be 'more irresponsible' to raise the debt ceiling without instituting deficit-reduction measures than not to raise it at all, we're in a heap of trouble. Even more alarming ... is the incoherent, impervious-to-facts economic philosophy undergirding Boehner's remarks." http://wapo.st/mGVI2Q

--N.Y. Times editorial, "Republican Demands and the Debt Limit: Mr. Boehner misdiagnosed the problem and offered rhetoric for the cure": "There is no way to solve the country's fiscal ills without an accurate diagnosis and rigorous prescriptions for a cure. Mr. Boehner's speech was devoid of both." http://nyti.ms/mPs2IF

--A TOUGH NEWS STORY - "Boehner's Views on Economy Contradicted by Indicators, Studies," by Bloomberg's James Rowley and Mike Dorning: "Boehner, giving Wall Street leaders his prescriptions for growing the U.S. economy and reducing the nation's debt, built his case on several assertions that are contradicted by market indicators and government reports. ... Boehner's statement ... that government spending 'is crowding out private investment and threatening the availability of capital' runs counter to the behavior of credit markets. ... The cost of borrowing is low by historical standards. ... Boehner ... said the 2009 stimulus program 'hampered job creation in our country,' a view at odds with the Congressional Budget Office's findings last August. The stimulus package increased the number of people employed by between 1.4 million and 3.3 million and cut unemployment by between 0.7 percentage point and 1.8 percentage point, according to CBO." http://bloom.bg/lvzyrY