U.S. Rep Mo Brooks, R-Huntsville, said he wrote a letter to Republican leaders in the House this week to complain they are wasting time and misleading the American public with the "No Budget, No Pay” refrain.

“The truth is we get paid whether Congress passes the budget or not,” said Brooks, calling Wednesday's bill inconsequential and intentionally misleading. “It’s a bunch of gimmickry, that’s all it is.”

“The polling data shows that No Budget No Pay carries a lot of weight with voters. Those voters are going to be upset when they discover” that both houses don’t have to pass the same budget, said Brooks during an interview late Thursday.

On Wednesday, the House voted 255-144 to pass a bill to suspend the debt limit until May 19, allowing Congress to focus on other pressing issues, such as automatic defense spending cuts scheduled to occur in March.

That bill also included language designed to urge Congress to approve a budget, something the Senate hasn’t done in years.

To that end, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, on Jan. 22 held a press conference to say that hard working taxpayers balance their budgets, and they want Washington to do the same

“Most Americans believe if you don’t do your job you shouldn’t get paid. That’s the basis for No Budget No Pay,” said Boehner, joined by Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Virginia, and other members of Congress.

The bill says that if "a House of Congress" has not passed a budget by April 15, then the pay for those members will be held in escrow until a budget is approved. And if that doesn't happen, they'll still get paid in full on the last day of the 113th Congress.

But Brooks say there’s another loop hole because the bill requires “a House of Congress” to pass a budget, meaning each house individually. “But there is nothing in the law that requires that what the House passes or the Senate passes be the same,” said Brooks.

That would mean a Democratic-controlled Senate and a Republican-controlled House could pass irreconcilable budgets and everyone still gets paid on time. "So in effect this bill does nothing to increase the likelihood that a budget will pass Congress," said Brooks.

Brooks was one of just 33 Republicans to vote against the resolution. The rest of the Alabama delegation, regardless of party, voted in favor.

Brooks declined to share the letter he wrote the House Republican conference. But he said he argued that the party should be more concerned with the suspension of the debt ceiling until May 19.

“There is no debt ceiling. Who knows what the President is going to do?” said Brooks, anticipating that the country would add $300 to $400 billion more to the national debt by then.

Brooks, who has long campaigned as a fiscal conservative, said more members of Congress are “waking” to his view of the debt as a foremost national security issue, but he said neither the House nor the Senate is prepared to end deficit spending. “A lot of people will lose their elections if they do what is right,” said Brooks.