The Skip and Phil Show: We want to play too
So the House and Senate Democrats are at loggerheads over the budget. As they meet and try to work out their differences, Republicans in the two chambers are left looking from the outside in.
Sen. Phil Berger and Rep. Paul "Skip" Stam used their regular Tuesday morning newser to make that point and to say how they'd do thing differently.
Basically, the Republicans contend that the Medicaid problem can be solved without raising taxes on either the state level or the local level, as has been most recently proposed.
Stam cited an e-mail from the Speaker's office saying that the Senate had rejected the House plan on the budget.
"Well, of course, I didn't have that plan, most of the Democrats didn't have that plan, you didn't have that plan. And I only mention that so when its reported that the House has done something or the Senate has done something, we're only talking about a few people," Stam said.
Although House and Senate budget negotiators have sketched out broad outlines of their various proposals for us scruff press types, it's largely true that there's been no big release of documents. Of course, at this stage of things, I'm not really sure what documents there are and whether they'd be helpful. As I understand how the process works, the proposals at this stage in the game tend to look like charts or checklists written in bureaucratic shorthand.
Stam is also right that the budget at this stage of the game is basically in the hands of the "big chairs," the full chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations and Finance Committees, with a few other leadership-types hanging on like majority leaders and so forth.
Stam and Berger also say this legislative session is in danger of becoming a "do nothing" General Assembly, pointing to the failure to get a budget done on time and take up other legislation.
I'll let you listen to those arguments for yourself.
Berger says that this budget has exposed the "fault lines" within the Democratic caucus more than in years past. It certainly has exposed the philosophical differences between the House and Senate. Although, in just my few short years up here, I've seen the House and Senate go at it and enact continuing resolutions, so I hardly think the tension here is unprecedented.
Click here to listen to Berger expound.
Finally, Stam noted that there was a House rule that prohibits the chamber from considering items not in controversy between the House and Senate version of the budget.
And he points out that the transfer tax and local option sales tax were a part of neither the House nor Senate budgets when they were first approved. Stam suggests that if they are part of a deal (albeit one that's under fire) he'll raise that point of order and ask Speaker Joe Hackney to rule the budget out of order.
Click here to listen to Stam explain.
It's an interesting thought, but I somehow can't envision Hackney quashing any viable compromise on such a point. And, although Stam could appeal that ruling to the chamber, I somehow don't think he'd get the 2/3 majority he'd need to over-ride. In case you're wondering, no, the courts are going to get into a tiff over a House rule unless it involves a constitutional point like the lottery lawsuit.
Comments (1)
To report abuse of the comment feature on this site, please use the feedback form at the bottom of any page.
You can read the thoughts of Americans for Prosperity at the link below
http://www.americansforprosperity.org/index.php?id=3480&state=nc
Posted on July 3, 2007 2:05 PM