Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio is sticking by his “no budget, no pay” proposal, despite some griping within his conference that the plan is no good, and he seems to be bringing much of the conference along with him.
In his first news conference of the 113th Congress, Boehner said most members could not forgo their pay and would be forced take up a budget if faced with the prospect of losing their monthly paychecks.
“Members of Congress, or some of us like me, you can’t go for months and months without a paycheck,” he said. “What this does is basically say that your pay gets escrowed, gets put on hold, until such time as you can pass a budget.”
After Boehner spoke, members of his leadership team all carefully repeated the talking points, particularly the “no budget, no pay” line that appeared in back of them with its own Twitter hashtag.
The comments came after a more than two-hour GOP Conference meeting.
The meeting went far beyond its scheduled end, with long lines of members waiting behind microphones to speak. But rather than expressing their concerns about the bill, many said they were pleased about the position of relative advantage the GOP is in, according to lawmakers in the room.
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