Let me see if I have this straight: House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, is wheeling, dealing, twisting, turning and convulsing (and probably crying) in an effort to get support from his own party members to pass a debt-ceiling-raising, spending-cutting bill that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., already has said has no chance of passing in his chamber.

In other words, Boehner has been spending most of this week trying to strike a deal to win approval for a bill that will NEVER BECOME LAW.

And members of Congress wonder why their work gets such low approval ratings from the public. Sheesh!

Here's an alternate suggestion, Mr. Speaker: Rid your bill of all the proposed spending cuts that no one can agree on anyway, and bring to the House floor a bill that will do nothing other than raise the nation's debt ceiling. You'll have no trouble getting the support of all the Democrats in the House, along with a good number of moderate Republicans, and the thing will pass with ease. The Senate then will pass it too, President Obama will sign it, and our nation will avoid the embarrassment of its first-ever debt default.

Yes, the spending cuts that Republicans want — but can't seem to agree on — are important. And, in some form, they need to be approved and enacted. But that will have to wait. For the time being, at this moment, raising the debt ceiling is more important. And it cannot be dragged out beyond Tuesday's deadline by elected officials who are more interested in scoring political points and getting their faces on TV than they are in doing what's best for the country.

You were elected to do a job. Mr. Speaker. Go do it. Now.