Boxer And Casey Dare Boehner: No Budget, No Pay

The lawmakers and political wonks who have been talking the most about a government shutdown have been…..Democrats! They’ve been attempting to create some sort of scary situation surrounding a government shutdown due to their being no budget, which is obviously the fault of the Republicans…..wait, wasn’t the Democrat led House maleficent for completely failing to create a budget for 2011, blowing off their constitutional duty? But, Senators Barbara Boxer (D-elusion-Ca) and Bob Casey (D-imwhit Pa) want to dare Speaker John Boehner in an opinion article at The Politico

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), in a recent speech in Nashville, Tenn., said it was our “moral responsibility” to avoid a government shutdown.

We couldn’t agree more. So we are now urging him to take a critical step to help take the threat of a government shutdown off the table.

Surely, a government shutdown scares all the Big Government liberal wankers: most of the rest of America thinks “government not doing things that mess up my life? Great!”

The Senate last week unanimously passed our legislation that would prevent lawmakers and the president from being paid during a government shutdown. A similar bill has been introduced in the House by Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.).

Now is the time for the speaker to show that he means what he says by bringing this important bill up for a vote in the House.

If I was a betting man, I’d say that Boehner will call their bluff by the end of today, Thursday. But, just to help him along, go ahead and Tweet him at @SpeakerBoehner (which is still so much more pleasant than @SpeakerPelosi, eh?) But, he should actually read and listen to the full context of Babs and Bobs written words. After a short discussion of it being mean that Congress gets paid even when government workers wouldn’t during a shutdown (even though a good chunk of those workers pay would come under the heading of “mandatory spending” as well), they write

Our bill could fix this inequity. It would also go a step further, saying that lawmakers and the president should not be paid retroactively after a shutdown. The message could not be clearer: No budget, no pay.

Speaker Boehner should take that dare: until there is an official FY2011 budget, there should be no pay for Congressional critters and the President. No money for perks like transportation, trips, office staff, and everything else they get for simply winning an election. They want to take a plane trip or car ride? They can pay for it themselves until such time as an official budget is passed. A continuing resolution doesn’t count.

Words have meaning, and, even if Babs and Bob mean a government shutdown, the headline of the op-ed, which match the words in bold in the excerpt, say “no budget, no pay.” Simple.

And I’ll throw a challenge out to Babs, Casey, and all Democrats who voted for the Senate bill, along with Moran and any House Democrat who votes for it and was present in the 2010 Congress: since it was your responsibility as the majority party to pass a budget, you should give back all your pay going back to, say, August 2010.

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach

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