Why the House GOP's clever 'No Budget, No Pay' ploy is pointless

Republicans have found a way to pressure Senate Democrats into finally passing a budget. So what?

Would docking the pay of members of Congress actually get their attention?
(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The sugar coating for many of the House Republicans who voted Wednesday, for all intents and purposes, to raise the debt ceiling was a provision they inserted to pressure the Democrat-controlled Senate to pass a budget resolution, something it hasn't done since 2009. The "No Budget, No Pay" measure, if it clears the Senate, will withhold the paychecks of all lawmakers in whichever chamber of Congress doesn't pass a budget by April 15, as required under the 1974 Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act. "All told, the Senate Democrats received a total of $46 million in compensation since they last passed a budget," calculates Joel Gehrke at The Washington Examiner. If you accept that 40 cents of every dollar spent by the government since 2009 was borrowed, that means about $19 million of that sum was added to the national debt "to pay the Senate Democrats who refused to pass the budget."

"'No Budget, No Pay' is a no-brainer," says John Avlon at CNN. For most of us, "if you don't get the job done at work, you won't get paid." Congress needs play by that rule, too. Budget resolutions aren't binding, but "without a budget, it becomes difficult for government to make long-term spending decisions that affect us all."

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.