GLADLY PAY TUESDAY? Call it the J. Wellington Wimpy budget. The N.C. Senate passed a $20 billion budget this week that doesn't say where $500 million in revenue would come from. Senate leaders said they'll work out the tax part later, much as the Popeye character promised to "gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today."

DUCKWORTH'S BACK ON: U.S. Sen. Richard Burr drew national attention for holding up the nomination of injured Iraq veteran Tammy Duckworth as Veterans Affairs secretary. He said he had questions about her financial disclosure forms, but declined to give details. By mid-week, he said he would allow the nomination to go forward.

EARMARK TRANSPARENCY: In the bad old days, members of Congress secretly inserted earmarks in the budget. Now, they post the requests on their Web sites. If you can find them. And they don't all call them earmarks. And their methods of tallying up the requests differ so much it's difficult to compare to them, apples to apples. But it's a start.

IN OTHER NEWS: A fix to the State Health Plan narrowly passed the state Senate. ... Former Board of Transportation member Louis Sewell got an invite to the Executive Mansion from Gov. Beverly Perdue. ... Vice President Joe Biden dropped by Fort Bragg to welcome home troops. North Carolina's been pretty popular for executive branch visits since the state went for President Obama in November. ... The Senate budget would take oversight of state testing away from schools Superintendent June Atkinson, the latest in a tug-of-war between her and Gov. Perdue over education.