Yuliya Tymoshenko optimistic prediction that the budget bill may be
passed in the first reading in three or four days are obviously grossly
exaggerated. The point is not even the ill-famed pro-Cabinet lobby resisting
the "budget revolution." The more so that the committee's bill is invariably
described as "attractive" and the Cabinet one as obsolete and unacceptable.
There are other reasons. For example, the Green Ihor Havrylov believes
the budget bill simply cannot be enacted that fast; its has to be painstakingly
whipped into shape, accompanied by struggle, even if only a make-believe
one. In short, the budgetary theater of the absurd has already been cast.
The NDP plays the role of pro-Cabinet lobby and, in the words of Oleksandr
Yemets, the Solons are "inclined to accept the government's version as
the most realistic." The Progressive Socialists are to protract the budget
process as best they can. Still, in the prima donna's role is the Chairman
of the Budget Committee.
Mr. Suslov believes that the lawmakers have fallen into a budget trap,
"because the unreal expense items are already being implemented and this
thirteen billion hryvnias has been handed out. The interests of those in
the audience have been served; if they vote against these appropriations
they will have to cancel spending on medicine, education, the coal industry,
and so on." However, this trap built by Tymoshenko has caught not only
legislators, but also the Guarantor of the Constitution. "If this populist
budget is enacted and the President vetoes it, he will surely lose the
next campaign. If he allows this unreal budget he will also lose, because
the Budget Committee's bill considers everyone's interest except the President's,"
says one of the Agrarians.






