Posted on 02/23/2009 4:20:24 AM PST by IbJensen
And how could they know what they do? It’s an open secret that members of the U.S. Congress, for a long time, have not read the very legislation on which they vote.
Regardless of the fact that many of the congressmen are lawyers and were taught in law school the definition of “fiduciary responsibility” — which means reading the entire document, from beginning to end, word for word — they choose to ignore this all important responsibility.
An excellent case in point is the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, H.R. 1, known as the “stimulus package.”
The number of pages in the stimulus package was reported to add up to 1,000-plus pages, give or take 100. The bill, H.R. 1, that President Barack Obama signed in Denver on Feb. 17 calls for expenditures that may exceed $1 trillion ($1,000,000,000,000).
The trillion-dollar figure fits neatly into the politically liberal frame of mind. Former President Lyndon B. Johnson, I believe (I’ll be corrected if I’m wrong), said the problem in American politics is that “Liberals can’t count and conservatives can’t talk.”
This should not come as a surprise to the U.S. Congress, simply because they haven’t read it.
In an effort to correct the problem of Congress not reading the bills, a lobbyist organization has been formed, DownsizeDC.org, to enlist public support for the purpose of bringing pressure on Congress to enact legislation that would require congressmen to read their own bills before they vote on them.
This may seem a futile effort, since they don’t read their own bills to start with. However, that may prove an advantage at this stage. We know the Congress may follow its regular policy of not reading the bills, and hopefully this one would get through.
The “Read the Bills Act” (RTBA), if it sees the light of day, would require, according to DownsizeDC,org:
“Each bill, and every amendment, must be read in its entirety before a quorum in both the House and Senate.
“Every member of the House and Senate must sign a sworn affidavit, under penalty of perjury, that he or she has attentively either personally read, or heard read, the complete bill to be voted on.
“Every old law coming up for renewal under the sunset provisions must also be read according to the same rules that apply to new bills.
“Every bill to be voted on must be published on the Internet at least seven days before a vote and Congress must give public notice of the date when a vote will be held on that bill.
“Passage of a bill that does not abide by these provisions will render the measure null and void and establish grounds for the law to be challenged in court.
“Congress cannot waive these requirements.”
The effects of these provisions will be profound, DownsizeDC.org predicts.
“Congress will have to slow down. This means the pace of government growth will also slow.
“Bills will shrink, be less complicated, and contain fewer subjects, so that Congress will be able to endure hearing them read.
“Fewer bad proposals will be passed due to ‘log-rolling.’
“No more secret clauses will be inserted into bills at the last moment.
“Government should shrink as old laws reach their sunset date, and have to be read for the first time before they can be renewed.”
DownsizeDC.org’s plan for passing this legislation is simple, but powerful:
“We have submitted a copy of RTBA to every member of Congress.
“We are asking every member of the House and Senate to sponsor this legislation and work for its passage.
“We are mounting a campaign to recruit thousands and perhaps millions of Americans to lobby Congress to support RTBA.
“We are promoting this campaign with a variety of tactics, from Internet networking, to media interviews, to whatever it takes.
“We will run targeted radio ads, letting citizens know that their Congressman is failing to support this badly needed reform.
“The need for this reform is so self-evident that nearly every person in America should support it … We see no reason why we should not be able to overwhelm Congress with calls to pass this legislation.
“We dare Congress not to pass it. The more they resist, the larger and stronger we will grow.
“We dare anyone to challenge it in court. The more the lobbyists attempt to defeat this reform, the larger and stronger we will grow.
“We dare the Courts to declare it un-Constitutional. If they do, we will grow larger and stronger as a result — probably big enough to begin a campaign to amend the Constitution to forbid ‘legislation without representation.’
“There is simply no reason that any normal, tax-paying American should oppose RTBA. And the more the ‘powers that be’ resist these reforms, the larger and stronger we will grow.
“We win either way. And thus, we believe, we will win in the end.”
The trick will be in getting a congressman to introduce the bill in the first place. According to DownsizeDC.org President Jim Babka, congressional offices have been flooded with 150,000 requests from the public for sponsorship for the bill.
Most are the dumbest form of human debris you'll find on the planet and they work hard to pass confusing and destructive legislation prepared by the army of staff they employ and we pay for!
That has been my thought about the stimulus bill when I heard that no one had read it. Was an unread bill constitutionally valid? Playing Devil's advocate here: Can you think of any bad unintended consequences of the passage of a "Read the Bills Act"?
Well, apparently someone has time, or means to get this started. I’ve been screaming for years that not only should a bill be read, but should be written by the congressmen. That will only happen when they have no more than one secretary, and one Chief of Staff.
The army of staff will lose their jobs, and we will gain the country back from the thousands of little liberal leftists and socialists masquerading as congressional staff, who write bills with typical one sided agenda driven junk.
There is one other important item and that is no bill will contain anything that is not specifically related to the issue the bill covers. This item appears to be covered by the no secret proposals clause.
They also go far beyond my thinking by having the bill viewable on the internet, except 7 days seems somewhat hasty to me. Thirty days should slow them down to a pace where average folks might just have a chance to read understand and digest the bills provisions.
The Congress needs a severe downsizing of offices and staffs whittled to 1. They also need to pack up and the end of each term and go out to earn a living under the ridiculous laws that they enact for the peons.
The Congress needs a severe downsizing of offices and staffs
Amen!
AMEN...THAT IS THE ANSWER
I really believe the Congress needs to take a swim in the Potomac. Hopefully many are non-swimmers.
We have elected liberal pansies to rule and ruin our lives and destroy our prosperity.
They will stand idly by while this Kenyan-Marxist puts the final touches on the destruction of our once great nation.
Whether they read the bills or not, they know exactly what they’re doing-—they’re spending $800 billion! This is not a nondescript bill with a giveaway paragraph or three tucked away for the lobbyists. It’s a massive spending bill for every liberal pet project like high speed rail and green technology. You don’t need to read every jot and tittle to know that.
In 1994 the Mustang Ranch in Nevada was taken over by the government for back taxes. They kept it open and tried to make it work. They sold it a few years later. They cannot even handle a whorehouse that sells booze and want us to believe they can run banks and auto plants?
LOL! That is beautiful. We should make a billboard out of that. Truly.
They will stand idly by while this Kenyan-Marxist puts the final touches on the destruction of our once great nation.
My Congresswoman among them who voted twice for the POS succubus. She claims to be a blue dog dem, which one might think is something other than go along to get along. NOT!
Her name: Stephanie Herseth Sandlin Dem of South Dakota. one of the more conservative states in the Union poorly served by a typical liberal leftist in the marxist scheme of things.
Mrs. Sandlin just gave birth which apparently has relatively little impact on a persons politics, but ought to. I guess their thoughts might be to increase the size of the liberal herd, instead of providing a pool of statesmen and patriots to serve liberty and the people.
She maintains a very low profile, as an able and willing assistant in the screwing of the Republic.
I love it!
“Have you read the bill?”
“How do you know what you are saying is true if you haven't read the bill?”
“How can you criticize the bill without knowing the full content?”
They easily ignore the fact that no one in congress, the White House or the media had time to read the bill before it was voted on and few have read the whole thing since then.
Not to mention that the general wording of the bill is convoluted, unclear and not very specific.
Also, many items are cryptic last minute adds and changes that were handwritten in the margins and only the originator knew the full intent and scope.
bump
Have one of "our" Congresscritters (I'm sure there are at least a few who read FR) slip a "loaded" amendment into a bill. The omnibus budget bill coming up is perfect, since nobody will EVER read that one. The amendment should be reasonable and logical.
Then, in the middle of the amendment, slip in some wild absurdity such as "all federal employees must, on their anniversary of hire date, demonstrate the ability to perform twenty pushups" or "any likeness or statuary must be properly clothed to safeguard local and community standards of decency" or something similar. Use your imagination!
Then, after the bill is signed into law, we can give the nation one howling good laugh while slamming Congress headfirst into the dirt.
(All the while praying that some leftist creep isn't planning to do exactly the same thing, only with a real amendment!)
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