Acid Trip
05-16-2012, 07:38 PM
What do we think? Passable or a snowballs chance in hell?
A group of Democratic and Republican House members say it’s time to punish themselves if Congress keeps failing at its basic duty of passing an annual budget — and they want to hit where it hurts: their own paychecks.
Even though House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor haven’t been keen on the idea in the past, Virginia Republican Scott Rigell and a bipartisan group of lawmakers urged them Wednesday to advance legislation suspending members’ pay if Congress doesn’t pass a budget on time.
The goal may seem relatively simple — except that Congress hasn’t passed a budget in more than 1,000 days, instead relying on short-term funding bills often approved at the eleventh hour after contentious partisan gridlock over whether to raise taxes or cut spending.
Another dramatic showdown over the budget could take place later this year, with Mr. Boehner appearing to threaten Tuesday that he would stand in the way of raising the debt ceiling if Democrats don’t agree to enough spending cuts.
A sure solution is to put members’ pay on the line if they don’t start thinking longer-term, said Rep. Jim Cooper, Tennessee Democrat, and sponsor of the “No Budget, No Pay” Act.
“One of the reasons we can do this is we will have engaged the most powerful lobbyists on earth to get it done, namely, our spouses,” Mr. Cooper said. “They have a strong interest in us getting paid.”
While 29 Republicans and 19 Democrats have signed onto his bill, Mr. Cooper said he needs more members to come on board to pressure the leadership into taking notice.
“It’s no secret this is not popular with leadership,” he said. “They just want to be popular with members. Some of the most sacred conversations here on the Hill are about member pay and benefits. You start messing with that and you get real trouble in both parties.”
The lawmakers also said a lack of civility between members is at the heart of all the dysfunction — saying that’s why they’re launching a new caucus called “Fix Congress Now” that members can only join if they agree to basic levels of courtesy.
But even that requirement has proven too much for some lawmakers, Mr. Rigell said.
“There’s no true pure litmus test — there are no phrases you can or can’t use to elevate civility,” he said. “It’s more the deep principles we’ve talked about here and so we’ve been very careful. We’ve had a few members say ‘no, I’m just not there,’ and that’s okay, that’s all right.”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/may/16/house-lawmakers-say-no-budget-no-pay/
A group of Democratic and Republican House members say it’s time to punish themselves if Congress keeps failing at its basic duty of passing an annual budget — and they want to hit where it hurts: their own paychecks.
Even though House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor haven’t been keen on the idea in the past, Virginia Republican Scott Rigell and a bipartisan group of lawmakers urged them Wednesday to advance legislation suspending members’ pay if Congress doesn’t pass a budget on time.
The goal may seem relatively simple — except that Congress hasn’t passed a budget in more than 1,000 days, instead relying on short-term funding bills often approved at the eleventh hour after contentious partisan gridlock over whether to raise taxes or cut spending.
Another dramatic showdown over the budget could take place later this year, with Mr. Boehner appearing to threaten Tuesday that he would stand in the way of raising the debt ceiling if Democrats don’t agree to enough spending cuts.
A sure solution is to put members’ pay on the line if they don’t start thinking longer-term, said Rep. Jim Cooper, Tennessee Democrat, and sponsor of the “No Budget, No Pay” Act.
“One of the reasons we can do this is we will have engaged the most powerful lobbyists on earth to get it done, namely, our spouses,” Mr. Cooper said. “They have a strong interest in us getting paid.”
While 29 Republicans and 19 Democrats have signed onto his bill, Mr. Cooper said he needs more members to come on board to pressure the leadership into taking notice.
“It’s no secret this is not popular with leadership,” he said. “They just want to be popular with members. Some of the most sacred conversations here on the Hill are about member pay and benefits. You start messing with that and you get real trouble in both parties.”
The lawmakers also said a lack of civility between members is at the heart of all the dysfunction — saying that’s why they’re launching a new caucus called “Fix Congress Now” that members can only join if they agree to basic levels of courtesy.
But even that requirement has proven too much for some lawmakers, Mr. Rigell said.
“There’s no true pure litmus test — there are no phrases you can or can’t use to elevate civility,” he said. “It’s more the deep principles we’ve talked about here and so we’ve been very careful. We’ve had a few members say ‘no, I’m just not there,’ and that’s okay, that’s all right.”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/may/16/house-lawmakers-say-no-budget-no-pay/