When you werent looking, guess what congress did.......

So everyone's been a bit busy the last few days, holiday, inauguration, what have you. Well turns out while you were out the GOP "tapped out" on the debt ceiling.

Now for those not familiar with the phrase, "tapping out" is a pro wrestling turned Mixed Martial Arts term as one of the ways to end a match. Unlike being pinned however, you dont "get beaten" when you tap out, you give up in order to prevent possible future long term damage. Basically its a nice way of saying "I quit, you win"  if you need a visual example, keep your eye on the man in the speedo, he's tapping out, to avoid [what we pretend since its wrestling] getting his shoulder dislocated

Now of course in pro wresting, the whole thing, including the tap out is staged, and the idea is to tap out clearly enough that the guy in the cheap seats can see you do it. In politics however things are a little different.

See in Pro Wrestling and in MMA, there is supposed to a winner and a loser, and your either one or the other, its an all of nothing proposition, but politics isnt. In theory there really isnt ever going to a clear winner and clear loser, especially in a system like the one we have now, where both parties control some part of the government. Everything should end in some kind of compromise, although admittedly the party that controls more usually gets more, but no one gets everything they want.

Like I said, that's the theory. In practice that doesnt always happen. Sometimes one side or the other is forced to give 100% to the other side, usually because of how badly their are beaten politically, or in an election, or on messaging ect. In short they "tap out" its not worth the long term damage to the party to keep this fight going.

But the problem is, unlike pro wrestling, the losing side really doesnt want to get caught tapping out, so they try to make up some bullshit where they claim they kinda won a little. Which is basically what happened here.

For weeks, since the fiscal cliff was resolved (in a way they didnt like) the Republican party has been talking how, come the debt ceiling they will be holding all the cards, how if they didnt get massive historic spending cuts they would not only not raise the debt ceiling they would shut down the government, how they might insist on restoring bush tax cuts for the top 2% in exchange for agreeing to raise the debt ceiling ect.

Well earlier this week they voted on the debt ceiling bill. And is passed. And what did the GOP get in exchange? Nothing.

Now of course if you ask them they will tell you they got something called the "no budget no pay act" passed, but the thing is, thats just the smoke screen so you dont see them tapping out.

See the republicans will tell you that according to the "No Budget, No Pay" (NBNP)act, if congress doesnt pass a budget, they dont get paid. The problem is, NONE of that is true.

For starters their is the 27th amendment, which makes it unconstitutional for any congress to vote to change its own pay. They can raise or cut the pay of the next congress but they cant touch their own. So its not so much "no pay" as it is delayed pay (which still may not be legal), in that, if they dont pass the budget, congress WILL still receive their full pay, just not until the last day of the session (sometime in December 2014).

Now of course if the House passes something and the Senate doesnt, then according to the bill, the House gets paid on time the senate doesnt......the problem is the 27th amendment also makes it illegal to pay the House and Senate differently, so the NBNP still may not be constitutional.

But heres the funny thing, not a word of the last 2 paragraphs actually matter. Because it turns out that just like the "No Pay" part is misleading, so too is the "no budget".

See again according to the Constitution, budget bills MUST start in the House. Of course the problem is, this leaves the senate unable to pass a budget, until the House does. Now obviously that makes it a bit unfair when the Senate pay could be denied because the House cant get their shit together. So instead of making pay contingent on a budget, the NBNP makes pay contingent on passing a budget resolution, which despite the similar name, isnt the same thing.

See a budget has numbers and actually spends and directs money ect. A budget resolution doesnt.  At its simplest all a budget resolution is, is a broad goal for what you would like the budget to be. "I believe we should return to the 2008 budget" or "I believe we should continue with the 2012 budget" are both perfectly valid budget resolutions. That's all congress needs to pass to get paid, one simple, non binding, sentence.

So yea, thats what the GOP is claiming they "won" so that they are not the outright loser and not tapping out.

But lest that seem flimsy enough for you, there is more.

Remember that flimsy "act" is supposed to be what the GOP got in exchange for "voting to raise the debt ceiling" but it turns out they didnt do that part either.

They voted to [temporarily] eliminate the debt ceiling. Not make it a higher number, not raise it, totally get rid of it. Until the end of may the debt ceiling is like a unicorn, it doesnt exist. And in may, when it comes back it comes back at whatever amount we need it to come back at to pay the bills in May.

So yea they gave the Democrats MORE then they wanted, and got nothing in exchange. See why I'm calling it "tapping out" and not getting beat? this is basically a full and unquestionable surrender.

Now yes that still leaves a bit of a problem for June, when we will likely hit the debt ceiling again, but thats the nice part about tapping out, since you didnt get what ever piece of your body ripped off you can try to fight again another day, Having credibility while doing so/looking like you can win this time? Well thats a different story.

In fact thats where Pro Wrestling and Politics meet, people will loudly be screaming about you tapping out, and making sure you dont forget it until you actually manage to win. And sadly for the GOP thats easier to do in wrestling, since its all pre determined, in politics not so much. I promise you next time this comes out every Democrat out there will quite happily bring up that the GOP "raised" the debt ceiling last time without a single cut, so in politics tapping out may be forever.