Amok Time

RALEIGH (By John Hood, Carolina Journal Online) - Things have reportedly gone from mad to terse in the North Carolina General Assembly as lawmakers try to fashion a compromise budget.

While the two sides aren’t that far apart on spending totals, House leaders don’t like the Senate’s tax plan. The sentiment is reciprocated. Upon signing a stopgap measure to keep state government funded through mid-July, Gov. Beverly Perdue scolded both chambers for failing to agree on a budget plan and asserted that for every day the impasse continues, the state stands to “lose” $5 million in budget cuts and tax hikes not yet enacted.

This is one of those moments when political language diverges from standard English. The difference in vocabulary reflects an underlying difference in perception. To the political class, an inability to transfer more resources from the private sector to the public sector is a lost opportunity. To the rest of us, it is a found opportunity.