Friday, March 16. 2007

Ridiculous

Children at play. That's all this is. The Republicans are going to throw all the toys away to please one member of the Constitution party and the Democrats won't even look at the toys because all they can do is cry about HB2 not being part of the toy chest. What ever happened to working together? Why don't the moderates on both sides of the aisle work together to fix this problem? They are present in the chamber, just not standing up and making their voices heard. They are letting the radicals on both sides hurt all Montanans.

Everybody wants to blame just the Republicans for this situation. I think both sides are to blame and it is disgraceful. If they would act like adults this would get solved reasonably and the citizens of Montana wouldn't have to suffer.

People are ridiculous only when they try or seem to be that which they are not. Giacomo Leopardi

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in Legislature 2007 at 06:39 | Comments (5) | Trackbacks (0)

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This reminds me of when your Father was in Helena and your sister was a page for the House. She had to give a report at school when she got back. The first sentence was something like this,,"They remind me of a bunch of first graders. Everyone running around and no one paying any attention to the teacher"

#1 well-seasoned Mom on 2007-03-16 11:09 (Reply)

Well really, the Democrats have put forward a plan, and it could have been debated, amended, and redebated until a compromise was reached. It was called HB2, and that's the way the budget has always been reached. We have always had a budget passed, and it has always spent less than it took in(as required by law). I don't know what to make of this "8-pack" and apparently most of the House doesn't either. The Democrats are really under no obligation to help the Republicans pass this thing, and the Republicans are going to have to expalin it all a little better to the people of Montana.

#2 tim huffman on 2007-03-16 17:38 (Reply)

Talking to people who don't spend a lot of time or effort following the antics of the Legislature, here are the impressions they will give you.

a) It wasn't always done with one bill, at one time it was done with several.

b) The majority of Montanans don't care if the budget is in one bill or 6 bills or 8 bills, they just want the legislators do their job and get a budget together.

c) The Republicans definitely look weak crafting the whole budget to Jore's standard to get it passed.

d) The Democrats look just as weak by not fighting for a decent budget and offering amendments to the budget bills that are being presented. Their continued cry of HB2 just doesn't sit well because of item b) I presented, people want a budget, they don't care if it is one bill or many.

The people out and about in the state blame both parties for this impasse. They can do better if they would want to. The partisan politics is getting in the way.

#2.1 Sarpy Sam (Homepage) on 2007-03-16 19:27 (Reply)

Sam, You are right. I misspoke when I said "always". I guess it has only been that way since the constitution was amended to require a balanced budget (one bill=one bottom line)? Thirty years is a long time, but it isn't "always".

#3 tim huffman on 2007-03-17 13:13 (Reply)

In my opinion, the Dems have tried to fight this, which wsa a reasonable and justified action, and they have done it well. They have opposed the so-called 8-pack. Every amendment they proposed in committee was defeated (remember, the R's stacked the approps committee with their folks), and they have been defeated on each budget bill that has passed 51-49. Asking to have HB2 brought back to life is reasonable - a unifed budget bill forces compromise because each side must give a little to get a little.

Of course, that is exactly what will happen when the Senate invariably amends all 8 of these bills (probably on 26-24 votes) and then the conference committees will make the budget. This whole "new process" just made the thing take longer, and in my opinion, made the Republican leadership of Sales, Lange, and Sinrud, look incompetent, while they acted like little children.

#4 jed on 2007-03-20 22:46 (Reply)

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