House Republican leaders on Friday announced a plan to condition a three-month increase in the debt limit on the Senate committing to pass a budget by the April 15 statutory deadline.
The bottom line seems to be this..the Republicans will increase the debt limit by enough to get through three months. No word on how much that is…I’m guessing somewhere between $300B and $500B depending on how good they are at math. Here is the kicker…. if congress…that is both the house and senate don’t pass a budget in that period…they will all cease to be paid, presumably until a budget is passed. No word yet on if the lobbyists will also cease paying them :)…this seems to be only taxpayer funds they will forfeit.
If nothing else this is at least interesting. I guess the Republicans don’t have the spine to shut down the government in the middle of tax season…Probably a wise move. So they avoid that battle, and will undoubtedly attempt to squeeze a few hundred billion out of the budget…of course over 10 years so we won’t even notice if it’s bogus because honestly, what % of us can even divide by 10? 40%? 60% maybe?
Of course, this is just a proposal…let’s see if they can even get it passed before we stop worrying about whether or not Uncle Sam goes bankrupt before, or after we cash our tax refund checks.
