Stripping a bill to pass a budget with no oversight by elected representatives is not even what our illegal state Constitution intends as government in North Carolina. When the people have no representation in government by elected officials, why should we pay taxes?
David DeGerolamo
h/t Publius Huldah
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Do we even need a legislature?
After hearing what is apparently taking place in our General Assembly, we have to ask why we even need 170 members in the General Assembly? We could save millions of dollars, free up lots of office space and greatly simplify state government if we permanently furloughed 150 or more of them. They obviously are not needed.
That whooshing sound you hear coming from Raleigh is the budget freight train racing nonstop through our legislature. Lawmakers are about to pass a $23.9 billion state budget with no input from rank-and-file members, no hearings and no opportunity to amend it. The spending plan was agreed upon by a handful behind closed doors and, to guarantee speedy passage, a questionable maneuver will be employed so that there’s no chance for amendments or meaningful debate.
The maneuver is known as “stripping a bill.” Here’s how it works: the language of an insurance bill, already passed in slightly different versions by each chamber of the legislature, will be completely striped of previous content, replaced by the entire budget for the coming year. The stripped bill will then be presented as a conference report, meaning it cannot be amended and rank-and-file legislators have only two options: vote for the conference report as presented or defeat it.
