Republican Launch a 'No Budget – No Pay' Campaign Under the Assumption That Ordinary Americans Care Whether or Not There is a Formal Federal Budget

But They Don’t – Really They Don’t

A basic rule in politics and positioning is that if you have to explain something, you are losing.  To the maximum extent possible a winning position is one that is self evident.  But Congressional Republican are caught up in the ‘inside Washington’ game where they think things they care about is what the public cares about.

In order to save face in their temporary cave-in on the debt ceiling issue House Republicans have put in place a law that suspends the debt ceiling for three months and requires the Senate to pass a budget resolution.  For some reason they think American will rally to their side from this tactic.

From the Washington Post

The GOP’s measure would impose a new requirement on Congress, key to winning support from a broad range of their own members: Both chambers of Congress must adopt a budget by April 15, as required by law, or have their congressional pay withheld until the start of the new Congress in 2015.

“All we’re saying is Congress: follow the law. Do your work. Budget,” said Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the party’s former vice presidential candidate, explaining the measure on the floor.

Now the average American has no idea what any of this means.  They do know that the Federal government has continued to operate more or less for a couple of years under rather contentious conditions, and they have no idea why a budget resolution is needed or why it makes any difference or even that a budget resolution has to exist.  So Republicans are going to spend the next several months trying to explain this to Americans who don’t care and don’t want to waste their time thinking about this issue.

The only thing Americans want is for Congress to work together to pass meaningful and effective policy, and how that gets done is something working families just don’t have time to fool with.  That’s why they elect people to represent them to do this.

So good luck Republicans in trying to shift the debate here to something no one cares about or understands.