House Republicans No Budget/No Pay Bill Poorly Written!

[JimofPennsylvan]

The House Republicans with this No Budget/No Pay Bill have a good idea but are implementing it poorly. The idea of putting off a debt ceiling confrontation until May 19th is a great idea because the intervening Sequester cuts which go into effect on March 1 and the end of March expiration of the continuing resolution offers a better opportunity to move politicians and people throughout America to make the desperately needed cuts in federal spending America should be making. Because for instance with the sequestration cuts I believe $39 billion will need to come out of the defense budget over the following six months this will result in eliminating and reducing defense programs that amount to America being weaker from a security standpoint I don't think the majority of Americans want that so there will be a strong impetus for the American people to find cuts in federal spending they feel comfortable living with! The real idiotic idea with this resolution HR 325 is not the penalizing of members of a chamber for not passing a budget because these are crisis times economically for America and a chamber is not meeting their duty if they don't pass a budget and it is absolutely deserved to withhold their pay until they start doing their job; the idiotic move with this resolution is with its legislative framework in that it salary penalizes members of a chamber for not agreeing to a concurrent resolution meaning that a chamber is going to have to pass the same concurrent resolution the other chamber is passing why doesn't the House pass a bill requiring Congress to cure cancer by May 18th. Be practical here at best the Senate will pass a budget in the ball park of what was agreed to in the 2011 debt ceiling legislation and the House will pass a budget that cuts the deficit dramatically more (I hope Speaker Boehner wasn't serious about trying to balance the budget in ten years the majority of the American people will not accept that much pain), there is no way they are going to come to agreement on the concurrent resolution unless there is a grand bargain agreement and I don't think withholding members pay creates enough leverage to bring a grand bargain about, a lot of members of Congress are wealthy their quality of life won't be diminished by withholding these members salary. House Republicans I think with this legislation are going to end severely hurting themselves. Why don't House Republican leaders re-open up the session for amendments to the resolution and amend HR 325 to require that a chamber must only pass a budget for 2014 to avoid having their salary withheld, this would likely bring about the Senate at least passing a budget something they haven't done in almost four years and it makes the situation better in Washington than it is today to reach a compromise deal for significantly cutting federal spending!

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Well den, who do dey think's bein' hurt now???...

Senators not in ‘millionaires' club’ would be hurt by lost paychecks
1/25/13 - The Senate is often called the “millionaires' club,” but some of its members would feel the pain if a blown budget deadline costs them their paychecks.

Provisions in the “No Budget, No Pay” debt ceiling bill that is headed to the Senate floor would impound senators' salaries if the upper chamber doesn’t approve a budget by April 15. For most of the upper chamber, the loss of the $174,000 annual salary would be no hardship. Many senators are millionaires many times over, having earned substantial fortunes outside of politics. But for a small group of senators whose net worth is measured in thousands instead of millions, the passage of “No Budget, No Pay” would put their very livelihoods at risk. “We’re not all millionaires,” Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) told The Hill. “When I splurge, it’s on a Ravens t-shirt.” “As much as I love my job and my constituents, I have bills to pay,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). “As a non-millionaire senator, I am certainly in a different spot that someone who is independently wealthy,” Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) said.

The provisions in the bill specify that if the Senate does not pass a budget resolution, pay will be withheld until Jan. 3, 2015, when the 113th Congress ends. The trigger is attached to a House-passed bill that would suspend the debt ceiling until May 19. Senate leaders support its swift passage to avoid a default on U.S. payment obligations now that the $16.4 trillion debt ceiling has been reached. House Republicans devised the plan to force Senate Democrats to pass a budget, which they have failed to do for the past four years. But the threat of lost pay might be easy for some lawmakers to shrug off. The Senate is home to Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), who is worth at least $85.9 million; Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), whose fortune is at least $56.9 million; and Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) who is worth at least $19.6 million, according to financial disclosure reports from 2011.

But not every member of the Senate has an investment portfolio worthy of Wall Street. “It will affect me but not as much as some members, such as those with small children,” Mikulski said. For 2011, Mikulski had a minimum net worth of $191,000 due to assets like IRAs as well as money market and savings accounts. Middle-class senators in the Republican Party are in an especially tough spot. If Senate Democrats come up short on a budget, they’ll suffer the consequences. Murkowski would not say whether she backed the concept of withholding lawmaker pay. “What I do support is some mechanism to make sure we do the most important job we have, which is to pass a budget,” she said.

Murkowski’s minimum net worth was at least $164,000 in 2011, according to her financial disclosure report. Murkowski’s view contrasts with the strong support for the bill from newly appointed Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.). He said the country’s fiscal priorities should come first. “We’ll all be affected … but what is more important is that it’s bad for the country not to pass a budget,” he said. Scott’s minimum net worth is more than $1.2 million, thanks largely to real estate holdings in South Carolina. Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), who has sponsored a more stringent version of No Budget, No Pay, acknowledged this week that the concept depends on the less wealthy senators pressuring the Budget Committee to act. “I think there would be a lot of people that would be affected of the 535 people that serve here in Washington, D.C., including myself,” he said.

Read more: Senators not in ?millionaires' club? would be hurt by lost paychecks - The Hill

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

The House Republicans...

link?

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

Granny says, "Well den, who do dey think's bein' hurt now???...

Senators not in ‘millionaires' club’ would be hurt by lost paychecks
1/25/13 - The Senate is often called the “millionaires' club,” but some of its members would feel the pain if a blown budget deadline costs them their paychecks....

Good, it's a start

 

[Capnyc]

Thank you for this

 

[Too Tall]

Granny says, "Well den, who do dey think's bein' hurt now???...

Senators not in ‘millionaires' club’ would be hurt by lost paychecks
1/25/13 - The Senate is often called the “millionaires' club,” but some of its members would feel the pain if a blown budget deadline costs them their paychecks....

Good, it's a start

At least 40 of the 100 US senators are millionaires, some many times over, according to financial disclosure filings submitted last month. Republicans on the list outnumbered Democrats by a narrow margin of 22 to 18.

All the Senate has to do is what the House has done every year and pass a budget. How difficult can that be?