Fiddling at the State House

The procrastinators in the RI House continue their torrid pace, today joined by the Senate. Governor Carcieri points out the obvious:

“They need to deal with the budget,” Carcieri said at an unrelated event. “They’re not doing that, and I think that’s really unfortunate because the problem is not going away; it’s getting worse.”

Though lip-service is being paid:

[House Finance Committee Chair, Rep. Steven] Costantino vowed to push Thursday for a joint resolution requiring Carcieri to submit a mid-year budget-balancing plan, known as a supplemental budget, by Nov. 16.

Yup, it's up ta the Guvnah!!!! Meanwhile, legislative Nero's proudly and indignantly fiddle:

House Majority Leader Gordon D. Fox...erupted when notified of the governor’s comments.

“We’re addressing real societal needs in these two days, so I don’t want the word to go out that they’re here and they’re doing nothing,” Fox said.

The Assembly, he continued, is addressing issues for “people who need services, or the people who are concerned with indoor prostitution, [as well as] the scourge of text messaging. Those are real issues. They don’t go away.”

Ah yes, the "scourge" of text messaging (how are we gonna enforce that, btw?). Hm. Scourge: "A source of widespread dreadful affliction and devastation such as that caused by pestilence or war." Unemployment? Bad economy? Budge deficit? Apparently, not scourge-worthy...but that text messagin'......!