IT clearly does not bother Speaker John Boehner that he pushed the United States to the brink of default last year. It does not matter that the deep spending cuts in the resolution he demanded to end that crisis will hurt economic growth. It does not even matter that the House he leads is determined now to break that agreement with even deeper cuts in vital programs.

No, Boehner wants to do it all over again: He announced Tuesday that the House will not agree to raise the debt ceiling when it is reached later this year or early next, unless the increase is matched by equal spending cuts.

An official who actually wanted to help the country rather than appeasing the Tea Party might have remembered what happened a year ago, after Boehner first made that extortionate demand. The bond rating agencies said the country’s credit and reputation had been seriously damaged, and the government lost its AAA credit rating.

All Boehner seems to remember is that he “won,” at least by his crass scoring system.

The White House reduced the damage by sparing some safety-net programs and making sure the military budget bore a fair share of the impact. But the House voted last week to undo even that agreement and make all the cuts from domestic programs, particularly those for the poor and the struggling.

Washington’s need to deal with the long-term deficit can be met only with a combination of new revenues and rational cuts, not extortion.

The overly deep cuts in last year’s deal were necessary only because Republicans refused to end tax cuts for the rich.

The House cannot prevent those tax cuts from expiring by itself, nor can it stop the big military cuts that also begin on Jan. 1.