Dan Yorke was livid, yesterday, about attempts by General Assembly leaders to grease the legislative chute for the next budget. From the relevant Providence Journal story:

Although [House Majority Leader Gordon] Fox [D, Providence] withdrew one provision, the rule changes scheduled for House Rules Committee review following this afternoon’s House session will contain several proposals opposed by House Republicans. They include limiting debate on budget-related votes and blocking members from introducing budget-related proposals already heard by a House committee, without the written permission of the Finance Committee chairman.
“That’s going to cut off essentially all minority budget amendments,” said Rep. John J. Loughlin, R-Tiverton. “That was one of the biggest ways we had of getting our issues out.”

The committee discussion has been postponed for a couple of weeks, and I wonder whether it mightn’t be counterproductive to try to stop the attempts of House Speaker Bill Murphy (D, West Warwick, Coventry, Warwick) to curtail our representatives’ abilities. After all, the little dictators in the GA may be charging full bore at Article IV, Section 4, of the Constitution, which guarantees to all states “a Republican Form of Government.” Maybe the feds will give us the gift of a redo order.
(Yeah, I’m half-kidding in a daydream. This rule change must die.)