Two of Washington's leading anti-tax, small-government watchdog groups are giving lawmakers mixed reviews ahead of Wednesday's vote to increase the nation's borrowing limit.
FreedomWorks announced that it will rate a vote in favor negatively on its annual congressional scorecard while the Club for Growth will give lawmakers a pass.
"This proposal is more of the same," FreedomWorks legislative counsel Dean Clancy said in a statement. "Once again, Republican leadership is negotiating with itself to temporarily bail the big spenders out by lifting the U.S. debt limit for four months, with no immediate accompanying budget reforms or spending reductions."
The Club for Growth, however, will give fiscal conservatives some breathing room.
"The Club for Growth will not oppose tomorrow's vote on the debt ceiling," President Chris Chocola said. "The Club for Growth will, on the other hand, strongly oppose any efforts during the upcoming debate over the continuing resolution and sequester that fail to arrest out-of-control spending and put sensible limits on the growth of government."
The deal announced by House leadership last week would temporarily suspend the nation's $16.4 trillion debt limit. In exchange it will try to force the House and Senate to pass a budget by restricting pay for members of Congress until they reach an agreement.
Congress has two other upcoming spending issues that it will need to
resolve: continuing to fund the federal government at current levels for the year and a looming $1.2 trillion across-the-board automatic cut in spending, with about half coming from defense programs.
Voters are becoming increasingly frustrated with the ongoing budget battles in Washington, according to a new Rasmussen Reports poll. They say that they would welcome a pay cut for lawmakers until they resolve their spending issues.
Its national telephone survey found that 81 percent of likely U.S. voters feel that members of Congress should take a 25 percent pay cut until the federal budget is balanced. Only 12 percent disagreed.
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