Rep. Tom Price (R., Ga.) praised the "No Budget, No Pay Act of 2013" that extended the debt limit for three month as a bipartisan effort Thursday, and he challenged the Senate to pass its first budget since 2009 in order to "put forth real solutions" to stop mounting deficits and 7.8 percent unemployment.
"No Budget, No Pay" passed in the House by a count of 285-144. Though 86 Democrats voted for the measure, it was criticized by some others as a gimmick, including Minority Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer (D., Md.), who said it reflected political gamesmanship.
"86 Democrats supported the bill that we had on the floor yesterday, so clearly they didn't think it was a gimmick," Price told MSNBC's Chuck Todd. "This was a bipartisan effort. If you look at the goal, we've got to get our fiscal house in order, we've got to balance the budget, and in order to do that, the Senate actually has to produce a budget, which they haven't done in nearly four years."
Price, the Vice-Chairman of the House Budget Committee, said he wanted the "majority party" to reduce spending, get on a responsible path to create jobs and avoid a government shutdown.
"We've got to get America back to work, and the way that you do that is with real solutions that address the spending challenges that we have, in an honest and sincere way," Price said. "We're the minority party in Washington, there's no doubt about it. We're willing to talk about whatever it is that actually gets us to a solution. The problem that we've had with the Democrat-controlled Senate in the last two years is that they haven't produced a budget, so there's no way to even talk about a compromise ... This is a big step forward to force the Senate to do a budget."