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
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.
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.