House withdraws from talks on key bill
ByBy MATT GOURAS Associated Press
The House upped the ante in the deepening budget stalemate Thursday, withdrawing from talks over one key bill.
House Democrats, with the help of one Republican vote, moved to disband the conference committee talking about a bill that primarily guts the voter-approved expansion of children’s health insurance.
House Speaker Bob Bergren is a Havre Democrat overseeing a 50-50 House. He says he wants to see progress in talks with the Senate on the main budget and the federal stimulus plan before he continues talking about the CHIP showdown.
Republicans say the move is just gamesmanship and may not have much impact on the final outcome - which still needs to be negotiated between very different ideological stands each side is taking.
The Senate controlled by Republicans wants to undo much of the Initiative 155 CHIP expansion, shift education spending increases over to one-time federal money and make other cuts to the House spending plan.
"I think that it’s going to all work out, with the changes that we have agreed to. It’s not as much (spending for some programs) as I would’ve hoped, but apparently it’s more than other people wanted. As usual, we are trying to find the middle.” 
"[On term limits:] You empower the executive, you empower the lobbyists and that's not good for the system because then we lose what the citizen Legislature brings.” 