After being home for a while, Senate Democrats have come back to Richmond singing a slightly different tune on the state budget and their quest for power:
Democratic leaders said their demand for more power in the evenly divided Senate is not an issue in budget negotiations with Republicans, who have working control of the chamber.
“I think it’s fair to say that the discussions about power-sharing – which is really policy-sharing – continue,” said Sen. Donald McEachin, D-Henrico County, the chairman of the Senate Democratic Caucus. “I don’t foresee the budget being an issue where that’s concerned.”
We will have to see whether McEachin truly means what he says. But I do appreciate the language twist he’s now employing. “Power” is such a strong word. And it’s not exactly the kind of nurturing, moving forward-ish sort of term that plays well with focus groups. “Policy,” though — that’s just about as bland and non-threatening a term as can be. Pair it with “sharing” and you’ve got a potential winner. Or at least the theme of an episode of “Barney and Friends.”
There are greater problems for House and Senate negotiators, though, than simply having Democrats willing to appear to talk. As House negotiator Del. Kirk Cox told us over the weekend on “The Score” radio show:
Right now, we’ve been trying to negotiate the budget that came out of the Senate Finance committee, but the newest wrinkle, which is a terribly bad wrinkle, is the Governor and the Senate Republicans have asked the Senate Democrats ‘what do they want in the budget?’ As a matter of fact, the only thing they’ve said is they want more power sharing — we want more power, we want more committees. And, basically, they offered no amendments the first time through. Finally, the next-to-last day of the session, here’s what they come in with: $450 million worth of additional spending beyond the current Senate budget, with no way to pay for it.
What are we negotiating? Are we negotiating the current Senate budget, or are we negotiating the amendments? Certainly, I’m negotiating the current Senate budget. I’m not negotiating the amendments.
Even had the Senate Democrats approved that chamber’s version of the budget, the negotiations would have been intense, as Cox makes clear later in the interview.
McEachin & Co. may think they are moving the needle by entertaining the idea of talking about the budget. The reality is that there’s still a very long way to go before the House and Senate can even begin their biennial game of give-and-take.
