One of the holdups to reaching a deal on the budget is that the fiscal matters bill has so many proposed amendments that it will take hours of debate to get through them, and every hour is precious at this point. Another holdup is that the Republican caucus doesn’t want to vote on 1811 (the fiscal matters bill) until a deal is reached on the budget. It seems that there are some amendments that caucus members don’t want to vote on at all — like school vouchers. They want the cover of an agreement so they won’t have to take any tough votes. Oh, the poor dears. I feel so sorry for them. Did the Tea Parties back home neglect to tell them that people who run for the Legislature sometimes have to make decisions, and that those decisions are recorded for everyone to see–and some of them might turn out to be unpopular? Did they think that they were going to come here and pass Voter I.D., state sovereignty, and sanctuary cities, but, don’t worry, nobody cares what you do about public schools and health care and higher ed? Do they think that getting primaried is something that happens to other people? Doesn’t Ogden understand that the House freshmen came here to march, Sherman-like, from Austin to the sea through the state budget, laying waste to the countryside? What is this talk about voting? And this thing called “governing?” Where did that come from? Why should we have to vote? We know what the people want. We’re just here to ratify it. We were there on November 2. Those were days. Defeated Democrats strewn over the landscape. An impregnable supermajority. This voting is messy stuff. A person could get embarrassed voting. Why, a person could even … don’t say it out loud … get beat. We didn’t sign on for that. Campaigning is fun. Governing is serious. Welcome to reality.