Susan Brooks is proud of the “No Budget, No Pay” Act. The problem is it is unconstitutional. The 27th Amendment reads, “No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.” Congress is to be paid on the last day of each month. One of the reasons why the 27th Amendment is important is to prevent Congress from being coerced and bribed into voting for legislation by leadership.
In addition, this could set the precedent for pay being withheld for other legislation like “no assault weapons ban, no pay” or “no tax increase, no pay”. Congress then has an incentive to vote for a budget even if it is not in the best interest of you the constituents. In the end we may still end up with a budget failing to pass both the Senate and House and members of Congress still getting paid.
What we need are REAL solutions not gimmicks. American’s are sick of the short-term solutions meant to make Congress look like they are serious on the budget. The irony is “No Budget, No Pay” was in the same bill that suspended the debt ceiling. If Susan Brooks was serious about the debt, she would have fought against the debt ceiling being suspended. Now that Congress has suspended the debt ceiling they will likely do it again in the future and eventually push for the complete elimination of the debt ceiling.
Bribing Congress to vote for legislation is not a solution. It is time Congress and Susan Brooks get serious about our debt and government spending and come up with real solutions!
David Stockdale
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