Republicans put Senate and President on the spot on budget

Image by שאול חנוכה Shaul Hanuka via Flickr

Politico:

House Republicans have been trying to pin the blame for the budget negotiations stalemate on Senate Democrats, and on Friday they’ll attempt to pass a bill that puts the onus on the Senate to make the next move.

The bill, which Republicans calls the “Government Shutdown Prevention Act,” says that if the Senate can’t pass a bill to fund the government before April 6, the original seven-month continuing resolution that the House passed in February will become law.

The bill will also say that if the government shuts down for more than 24 hours — or the debt limit is reached — members of Congress and President Barack Obama will not be paid.

...

The bill is basically a tool for putting the blame for any shutdown on the Democrats and a way of reminding voters that Republicans are the only ones who have passed a budget in the last year. I think the Republicans are doing a better job of framing the issues on the budget than the Democrats at this point. Most surveys show that nearly 70 percent of voters favor cutting government spending.

I think the Democrats are misreading voter sentiment and are blundering into the reactivation of the Tea Party.

Related articles

• How The GOP Should Play The Government Shutdown Threat (blogs.forbes.com)
• Republicans Seek to Change Rhetoric on Shutdown (politicalwire.com)
• Dems fear shutdown unavoidable (politico.com)
• Boehner: 'Senate must act' to pass its own spending bill (thehill.com)