No budget, no pay

A bill has been introduced in both houses of Congress that’s probably not going anywhere, but you might find it interesting because it would withhold paychecks from members of the House and Senate if they fail to pass a budget. Not a balanced budget. Just a budget. The No Budget, No Pay Act requires members of Congress to complete the spending process each Oct. 1 if they want to keep drawing a salary. It would go into effect starting in 2013.

Congress hasn’t been able to pass a budget in almost three years. Instead, it has been funding the government without a plan through continuing resolutions and through massive appropriations bills that no one in Washington could possibly understand.

That has allowed it and the president to avoid setting priorities and making the kinds of tough choices that households, businesses, and state and local governments make all the time. It’s no coincidence that, this past year, the federal government spent $3.6 trillion but only collected $2.3 trillion in revenues. That $1.3 trillion deficit is an additional $4,333 in debt for each man, woman and child in America. The total national debt is now well over $15 trillion, or $50,000 for each of us.

The House bill has more than 20 co-sponsors, including three from Arkansas: Rep. Tim Griffin, a Republican from central Arkansas’ 2nd District; Rep. Rick Crawford, a Republican from eastern Arkansas’ 1st District; and Rep. Mike Ross, a Democrat from south Arkansas’ 4th District who, because he is retiring, wouldn’t personally be affected by the bill. Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., is one of four co-sponsors in the Senate.

Reached by phone last week, Griffin said No Budget, No Pay would “incentivize behavior that moves us back to regular order.” He said it would encourage the two houses of Congress to put pressure on each other to pass a budget, much like schoolchildren who are told by their teacher that, if one of them misbehaves, none of them will get recess.

Boozman and Griffin both said the proposal isn’t yet generating much buzz in Washington, and while it has little opposition, it isn’t likely to become law. If it did, Boozman said, members of Congress would start passing budgets on time. The real goal, according to Boozman, is to call attention to the problem and inspire voters to contact their representatives. A December poll by the bipartisan group No Labels found that 88 percent of Americans supported the concept behind No Budget, No Pay. “Any vehicle that we can use to draw attention to the fact that we’re operating the government without a budget is a positive thing,” Boozman said.

As for the other members of Arkansas’ congressional delegation, Sen. Mark Pryor and Rep. Steve Womack from northwest Arkansas’ Third District have not yet taken positions on the issue. Pryor’s view is the most important of the six members of the state’s congressional delegation because he sits on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, before which the bill will get a hearing March 7. This legislation won’t do for the voters what they ought to do for themselves, which is fire congressmen who keep spending the country deeper into debt. But it would at least add a personal incentive for elected officials to act responsibly. Currently, the incentives work the other direction: Voters are more likely to re-elect congressmen who run deficits than those who set priorities and make tough choices.

Maybe it’s time to change that. As Griffin said, “If constituents would have made it clear to past members of Congress and the Senate, if you spend more than you take in, or you don’t restrict spending, or you don’t make the government live within its means … you will be booted from office, and then followed it up each election cycle with booting them, politicians wouldn’t have been spending more than we take in.”

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Steve Brawner is an independent journalist in Arkansas. His blog — Independent Arkansas — is linked at Arkansasnews.com. His e-mail address is brawnersteve@mac.com.