House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., insisted on the House floor today that Washington has to significantly curtail its spending.

"We know with certainty that a debt crisis is coming to America," he said. "This is not a question of if, it is a question of when."

Democrats like Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said the "No budget, no pay" bill amounted to a "gimmick," for various reasons. For one thing, while it requires both the House and the Senate to pass their own budgets, it doesn't demand that those budgets be passed into law.

"I have no doubt [Republicans] have the votes to ram whatever [budget] they want through the House of Representatives," McGovern said on the House floor. "This is not a solution, what this is is more political gamesmanship... You pass something in the House, it may never be reconcilable with the Senate."

House Democrats also complained that the bill prolonged the debate over the debt limit rather than solving it.

"The good news is that our Republican colleagues finally realized that America should pay its bills and dropped their condition that that be matched by cuts," Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said in a news conference. "The bad news is they've decided that America only needs to pay its bills for three more months."