It all happened late this afternoon, in rapid fire succession, all starting with a blatant mis-speak by Delegate Ben Cline (R-24, Rockbridge) when bringing his spending transparency bill (HB 2285) to the floor.
Explaining the Senate’s floor amendment to the bill and why it should be “severed” (which elicited some sarcastic “oooohs”):
“I talked to the patron and he’s okay with it.”
Speaker Bill Howell (R-28, Stafford), to what may have been the loudest laughter in session this year:
“You are the patron!”
After Majority Leader Morgan Griffith (R-8 Salem) parodied Cline to more laugher, Delegate Todd Gilbert (R-15, Woodstock) stepped up for a bill of his own:
“Mr. Speaker, I have a question of the patron. Would the patron yield?”
The House laughed louder than the original faux paux. Then Delegate Gilbert added, “I can go on. This is easy.”
It’s been a long “short session” and they’ve been on the floor for hours at a time. It’s definitely time to bring down this curtain and let them go home!
[...] For years, it has been very difficult to determine for what and to whom the state contracts and pays for services, not to mention what spending is duplicated and otherwise wasted — and whether it is spent on nefarious groups such as Planned Parenthood. It took almost the entire session, but these are major victories. That said, at least we had one humorous moment in this process, appropriately, near the end. If you haven’t checked out yesterday’s QOD, click here to read about the House “d…285. [...]
Over the past year, beginning with Oklahoma, state after state have declared their sovereignty in anticipation of the Obama administration forcing massive expenditures onto the states. The most recent in-depth post I’ve seen is on the main webpage of the Constitution Party (www.constitutionparty.com). So far, 20+ states have joined this movement, and I expect many more will.
This movement can be greatly assisted on a statewide basis by the FamilyFoundationBlog.com.