David Safier and Tom Prezelski at Blog for Arizona (and in Tom's case, Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion) and Steve Muratore at Arizona Eagletarian broke the news that a possible deal on Senate passage of a budget and Medicaid restoration could be presented today.
The Arizona Capitol Times finally has the story, but a subscription is required there.
Nothing is clear yet (most of the players aren't talking), but there are concerns that some members of the Democratic caucus are cutting their own deals with Senate President Andy Biggs (R-Publisher's Clearinghouse) to gain passage of a weak expansion of Medicaid in exchange for their support for a Republican "let them eat cake" sort of budget.
Based on what I've seen of the Senate Ds, however, they don't want any sort of "aiding and abetting" of the tea-publicans' attack on society to be part of their legislative legacy.
Especially those who will be involved in a primary next year, whether for a return to the Senate or for another office.
Especially2 when there are doubts about whether any deals that individual Senate Democrats work out will survive in the House.
While there may be some individual senators who feel the tug of temptation, when the smoke from this clears, the caucus will be standing united in their support of the Democratic values of families, education, healthcare.
Some will just have gritted teeth.
Anyway, as of this writing, nothing has been posted on the lege's website, though according to a call to the Senate, a Senate Rules Committee meeting has been scheduled for 1 p.m. No agenda has been posted, but according to other reports, the purpose of the meeting is to authorize the late introduction of budget and Medicaid-related bills.
No comments:
Post a Comment