Some fiscal conservatives are criticizing Governor Charlie Baker for signing an approximately $43.3 billion budget approved by the Massachusetts Legislature without vetoing a single line item.
Paul Craney, spokesman for the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, a tax and spending watchdog, noted that state spending has increased more than $5 billion since Baker, a Republican, took office in January 2015, and that even Baker's liberal Democratic predecessor Deval Patrick vetoed certain earmarks in past budgets approved by state legislators.
At the Democratic presidential debates this week and as the campaign heats up in the months ahead, listen for the word "suck."
Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts has been using it frequently in connection with health care. In the first round of debates she said, "the insurance companies last year alone sucked $23 billion in profits out of the health care system."
