- Jun 6, 2007
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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!