WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) — Celebration doesn't seem to be high on the agenda as House Republicans, their majority renewed by the voters last fall, lay the groundwork for another challenge to President Barack Obama over federal spending.

And no wonder.

Their annual retreat this past week in Williamsburg had scarcely begun when they were told that disapproval ratings for Republicans in Congress had climbed to 64 percent in a poll completed a few days earlier. Only 27 percent of the public viewed them favorably in the survey, taken by David Winston, a respected Republican pollster.

A previous sounding by Winston at the very end of 2012 wasn't much better.

At the height of the controversy over the "fiscal cliff," the most recent clash with Obama, 49 percent of those surveyed said negotiations on the issue were difficult because the tea party-heavy GOP opposed the president out of political motives. While the public strongly favors reductions in spending, only 42 percent said Republicans were acting out of a desire to implement cuts and deal with a debt crisis — the reason party officials and lawmakers themselves repeated tirelessly.

The coming confrontation will occur over the debt limit. As Republicans left one type of retreat, they began another, scrapping the brave talk reminiscent of their heady days from 2011 when they threatened to send the government into an unprecedented default in hopes it would force the White House and congressional Democrats into cutting spending.

"No budget, no pay," is their newly unveiled slogan.

That means they are willing to let the Treasury borrow money for an additional three months without demanding cuts in exchange. Instead, members of Congress would have their pay withheld if the house they serve in, either the House or the Senate, failed to pass a budget within 90 days that included spending reductions.

That's aimed squarely at the Democratic-controlled Senate, which hasn't approved a budget in four years.

"This is the first step to get on the right track, reduce our deficit and get focused on creating better living conditions for our families and children. It's time to come together and get to work," House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia said in a statement issued as the rank and file headed back to Washington.

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