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[Cman]

As widely expected, the House today voted to suspend the debt limit until May.

http://www.rollcall.com/news/debt_limit_extension_bill_passed_by_house-221034-1.html

I am fascinated by this approach for a number of reasons.

First, from a strategic point of view, the goal for the Republicans is to have the Dems and WH focus on sequester and budget, then deal with the debt limit later.

Second, what the bill does is not "raise the debt limit" but instead literally "suspends the debt limit" until May, at which point the debt limit will be reimposed at whatever level it has gone up to.  I find this fascinating because in principle, Congress could pass all sorts of spending between now and May, then, by law, the spending limit will cover that extra spending....

[KGs Knee]

Isn't the inclusion of the suspension of congressional salaries, absent an approved budget, unconstituonal?

As far as I'm aware, the 27th Ammendment basically prohibits congress from making any law which varies their pay until after the next election after the bill was passed.  Isn't suspending pay a variance in pay?

[Cman]

Isn't the inclusion of the suspension of congressional salaries, absent an approved budget, unconstituonal?

As far as I'm aware, the 27th Ammendment basically prohibits congress from making any law which varies their pay until after the next election after the bill was passed.  Isn't suspending pay a variance in pay?

Yeah, this was another piece that I didn't understand.
I'm actually sort of shocked that the stock market isn't acting more negatively towards this.

[Cman]

Another thing I don't understand is why the media call this "defusing the budget debt limit crisis."

Nothing has been defused. Stuff has just been delayed, that's all....

[Interceptor]

Isn't the inclusion of the suspension of congressional salaries, absent an approved budget, unconstituonal?

Might be bad reporting. I had read that they were just going to put it in escrow. It seems unlikely that they'd do this if it wasn't within the letter of the law.

Another thing I don't understand is why the media call this "defusing the budget crisis."

Nothing has been defused. Stuff has just been delayed, that's all....

The debt ceiling debate is not even a budget crisis, so that makes it double-wrong. But that's no surprise, the MSM is generally pretty terrible at things like this.

[BballTim]

As widely expected, the House today voted to suspend the debt limit until May.

http://www.rollcall.com/news/debt_limit_extension_bill_passed_by_house-221034-1.html

I am fascinated by this approach for a number of reasons.

First, from a strategic point of view, the goal for the Republicans is to have the Dems and WH focus on sequester and budget, then deal with the debt limit later.

Second, what the bill does is not "raise the debt limit" but instead literally "suspends the debt limit" until May, at which point the debt limit will be reimposed at whatever level it has gone up to.  I find this fascinating because in principle, Congress could pass all sorts of spending between now and May, then, by law, the spending limit will cover that extra spending....

  It would be more fascinating if someone else was paying the bills.

[Cman]

Another thing I don't understand is why the media call this "defusing the budget crisis."

Nothing has been defused. Stuff has just been delayed, that's all....

The debt ceiling debate is not even a budget crisis, so that makes it double-wrong. But that's no surprise, the MSM is generally pretty terrible at things like this.

My bad, I meant to write "debt limit crisis" (now corrected).
In any case, not defused, just delayed.

[Interceptor]

There's a certain perspective that could see this crisis as "defused"-- Obama called the GOP's bluff and they blinked, so the issue is now dead for the foreseeable future, even past May -- although that's almost certainly not what the media was referring to.