If the Senate Won’t Pass a Budget, They Shouldn’t Be Paid
“As part of its “Bankrupting America” education project, a group called Public Notice released this video on Monday and ran ads this weekend drawing attention to the Senate’s inaction. Their message was straightforward: “Stop pointing fingers and start doing your job.” It’s pretty frightening when we have to start treating our elected officials like recalcitrant teenagers.
“The Senate looks particularly bad because the Republican-led House of Representatives has done its job. Under the leadership of Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and House Speaker John Boehner, the House passed its budget along a party-line vote in March. Whether you loved it or hated it, at least the House Republicans were willing to tell taxpayers how they were planning to spend our money.
[Read the U.S. News debate: Will the New Ryan Budget Plan Hurt the GOP in 2012?]
“At least one member of the Senate has had enough. Sen. Dean Heller—Reid’s Republican fellow Nevadan—has introduced legislation called the “No Budget, No Pay Act” (S.1981). In this legislation he brilliantly links lawmaker compensation to passing a concurrent budget resolution and related appropriations bills. If they miss their deadline, no pay is rewarded retroactively.
Publius Prime 