* The House passed the human services appropriations bill today, which cuts hundreds of millions of dollars from this year’s spending. The vote was 83-25-2.

The House has now finished passing its budget bills, and Speaker Madigan congratulated his chamber this afternoon for taking on the very difficult task of handling these budget cuts on their own, without the usual end-of-session, back-room negotiations between the leaders and the governor. As Madigan pointed out, this is the first time a budget has been crafted by the approp committees since 1991. Before that, one chamber would handle half the budget and the other chamber would take on the rest. Watch…

As I write this, the Senate is voting on its approp bills as well. No Republicans are voting for the bills, complaining that the legislation hasn’t been heard in committee. They make a valid point, but it’s not like they were going to vote “Yes” anyway.

* The Question: Do you think Speaker Madigan is training his members to act on their own because he might be planning to retire? Or, do you think Madigan is doing it this way for the first time ever because he knew he couldn’t negotiate a spending-cut budget with Gov. Quinn and President Cullerton and then convince his more liberal members to accept it? Or is it something else? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.

*** UPDATE *** Sorry. I screwed up the code and had to dump the poll. You may also have to clear your browser cache because when I did the new poll, I kinda screwed it up as well. Sheesh. Friday the 13th. Vote again, please…