First of all I am not a complete moron, but I do know that the House controls the money. They so far have presided over the biggest spending spree in history.
The House has the Only Constitutional authority to produce spending bills, historically they have been remiss in their obligation.
Second no congress can be bound by a preceding congress, they have all the power they need, they curiously refuse to use it. I know the administration would ignore the Contempt citation, that should net be reason to ignore the fact that they are in contempt,the Senate has nothing to do with it.
The power of the purse was given to Congress for a reason by the founders, Boehner would be unwise to ignore that.
The power of the purse was taken away from the House by the maneuverings of the Democrats -- starting as early as 2009.
When the passed Porkulus, they knew they would likely lose the House in 2010.
So:
1. They styled Porkulus as a one-time-only expenditure. Yet, they built the trillion dollars into each department's budget framework.
2. The 2009 budget was the last budget passed by the House and Senate. There was no effort to write a 2010 budget and the departments went on auto-pilot thanks to base-line budgeting -- with Porkulus built into their base-line. The same happened with the 2011 budget, which was due in October, 2010. The Democrats had complete control of both Houses of Congress, at the time; the GOP had no voice in the matter.
3. When the GOP took over the House in 2011, there was no budget -- but there was a spending plan because of the base-line budget, with Porkulus built in, of course. And another 3-to-7% automatically added to the total. The GOP House developed a budget, after the fact. But the Democrat Senate wouldn't even bring it to a vote. The spending cvontinued unabated.
4. The GOP House produced budgets for 2012 and will doubtless prepare one for FY 2013, which starts in October, 2012. The Senate refused to act on the 2012 budget. And they will refuse to act on the 2013 budget. Spending will continue to be guided by the baseline budget system -- with Porkulus growing annually, thanks to the wonders of compound interest.
5. Under the circumstances, the only mechanisms available to the House to control the budget are the continuing resolutions. They can have no impact on total spending...or on how the money is spent...unless the Senate concurs!
Checkmate. The Democrats have gamed the system and installed a devious plan, based on double-dealing, that has kept the huge deficit spending rolling along unabated.
Yes, they're cheating. And they're irresponsible. And they have subverted the Constitution to their own political ends. But there is little or nothing that the House alone can do about it. That is why we need not only the House, but a dominant majority in the Senate and the Presidency to reverse all the damage that has been done.
There is no argument regarding the House's authority regarding spending, but SPENDING and CONTEMPT CITATION are far different things my FRiend.
In a purely theoretical sense, one could assert that the House could stop all spending authorizations in protest to force a Contempt Citation, but Blue Sky does not prevail in an election year, in deference to those “undecided Independent voters”.