With just one vote margins in both the House and Senate, Republicans have no room for error, and with a Democratic Governor to satisfy for the budget to be signed, legislative Democrats are salivating at the thought of Republican turmoil.
Sadly for the GOP majorities, they have been unable to cobble together the needed votes to pass the draft budget, and after a late evening, members went home to regroup and come back to try again.
“This is how it is with really small majorities,” reported one budget insider, “because any one member can screw it for everyone, so a few members will take the opportunity to try to get something for their vote, or to settle scores with other members, and so getting to 31 and 16 is misery.”
The majority of Republicans are in agreement with the budget, but a small handful of Republicans including Rachel Jones, Justin Heap, Jacqueline Parker, Barbara Parker, and Cory McGarr, have been meeting with Democrats like Annalise Ortiz and Cesar Aguilar in an effort to scuttle the Republican budget.
“The small group has their own varied reasons for wanting this budget to fail, like Jacqueline Parker just hates [House Speaker Ben] Toma, but whatever their reasons are, it’s the Democrats who are most excited, because if the Republicans can’t pass the budget with all 31 Republicans on board, then Democrats take over the process and the budget gets a lot bigger.”
That isn’t entirely accurate, and Democrats would not take over the process itself. Republicans still control the process, the gavel, and the floor, but if a single Republican insists on voting no on the budget, then Republicans cannot pass the bill without Democrat votes, and those votes will come at a price.
“Right now the budget is pretty good, Toma and [Senate President Warren] Petersen have protected ESA’s, and considering this was negotiated to satisfy a Democrat Governor, it really is pretty darn good.” exclaimed one frustrated school choice advocate, who asked not be identified while the process carried on. “But leave it to some lawmaker with a grudge, like Rachel Jones, to blow it all up and give Democrats the power.”
For their part, some of the opponents are against the budget because they think it is too large and they want to see cuts made. The dilemma is that while those cuts may be popular with all or most all of the Republicans, they would earn a swift veto of the budget from Katie Hobbs, who wants a great deal more spending than what is in the negotiated budget.
That means this may be the best budget Republicans can get with a Democrat Governor, and if it gets voted down, Republicans are likely to get stuck with an even larger budget on the next version.
Well, here it is,time to find out who is a Republican! Kind of humorous… All the back stabbing and petty emotions just who will stand above all of it. I wonder if any of the ones that will vote against this will even think of their constituents? You know, the ones who made it possible for them to even be there.