Wednesday was the second full day of committee hearings on budget cuts and personal injury protection insurance. Many of the decisions about what to cut and how much were made behind the scenes by GOP leadership in the legislature. Democrats are complaining that the cuts should be more thoroughly studied and examined in the open. They are threatening to vote against the budget cut legislation, but the Governor says they need to be team players.
"With all due respect, I think that what’s happening is a very good, productive process. It’s difficult to have reductions. We’re not really cutting, we’re just reducing what the increase would have been and I think that’s important for your viewers to know too. But, you know, these people work incredibly hard, I’m very proud of them. You know, we can whine or we can work and I think we need to work,” the governor says.
The first test of Democrat’s strength comes Thursday, when the House and Senate will take the budget bills up on the chamber floors.