To say this is the stupid party is almost redundant at this point. It's certainly the don't learn anything party. It's amazing how similar this is following the script to the fiscal cliff. Think of this new scheme-where the debt ceiling is raised for 3 months but if a budget isn't passed by either chamber their pay is withheld-as Boehner's Plan B in the cliff where he finally caved on raising rates but tried to have them rise only for those over $1 million.
Here Boehner, Cantor and company are caving on threatening not to raise the debt ceiling but proposing to raise it only for 3 months and adding in this new "leverage" on the budget. It's not going anywhere more than Plan B did. If the House plans to pass it they'll have to do it without Democratic support.
Steve Hoyer, ranking Congressional Democrat isn't buying it:
"Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) characterized the GOP's new plan to raise the debt ceiling as a political ploy on Friday, calling on Republican leaders to allow a clean debt ceiling increase as soon as possible."
"Sadly, with today's proposal we see a continuation of putting politics before policy, which the Republican majority pursued with a vengeance in the last Congress," he said in a statement. "To my knowledge, no responsible Republican leader believes that default will be anything other than disastrous."
"The statement by Hoyer, the House Democratic Whip, signals that Republicans may have a difficult time of passing key legislation, such as a debt ceiling vote, under a comfortable majority of Democrats. The vote for the fiscal cliff bill, under a tight Jan. 1 deadline earlier this year, passed with an overwhelming majority of Democratic votes."
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/hoyer-to-gop-raise-debt-ceiling-cleanly
This is not like the bill passed on January 1 it's like the bill that failed to pass-Boehner's Plan B. You see the trajectory this will take-the same as the one the cliff bill took. The Democrats will pass a clean bill in the Senate and it will be rammed through the House with minimal GOP support and the overwhelming majority of Democratic votes.
Wash, rinse, repeat. Get used to it. This is how most legislation will get passed in the next 2 years. It's how I expect gun control and immigration pass as well-immigration may well have a few more GOP votes, though I'm not sure if it will be a majority. Meanwhile this talk about witholding Congress' pay is just a gimmick and clearly isn't constitutional. Even Darrell Issa originally pointed this out but has since found religion.
"The 27th Amendment to the Constitution provides: “No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.”
"Two House Republican leadership aides insist that their proposed legislation would be permissible under the 27th Amendment."
“The legislation does not change members’ pay. It does not reduce it,” one leadership aide told TPM. “It withholds it until they pass a budget, which is permissible under the 27th Amendment.”
Adam Winkler, a constitutional law professor at UCLA School of Law, told TPM that the proposal faces a serious hurdle because of the 27th Amendment.
"The answer is unclear because the 27th Amendment has never been authoritatively interpreted by the Supreme Court,” Winkler said in an email. “Yet it seems almost certainly unconstitutional. Withholding pay effectively ‘var[ies] the compensation’ of lawmakers. The amendment doesn’t say only raises in pay are invalid. It refers to ‘varying the compensation.’ Just as a ‘bonus’ would vary lawmakers’ compensation, so does withholding money. This logic applies even if the pay is ultimately delivered to lawmakers. By outlawing ‘varying the compensation,’ the 27th Amendment prohibits laws that change when lawmakers receive pay, not just the amount they receive.”
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/01/gop-debt-ceiling-plan-27th-amendment.php?ref=fpb
Even a right wing group doubts it' constitutionality.
"American Majority Action, a conservative grassroots group which isn’t on board with the GOP’s softened approach on the debt limit, contends that the final clause of the 27th Amendment means the bill, if it passes, could not take effect until next Congress."
“While most conservatives believe that Congress shouldn’t be paid if they don’t pass a budget, they also believe Congress shouldn’t be paid unless they pass a responsible budget,” AMA spokesman Ron Meyer said in a statement. “But mostly, they believe in following the Constitution.”
Yes, the GOP is still in the denial stage of grief.
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