What an ass.
““I’m laughing because a) I don’t know how long this bill is going to be, but it’s going to be a very long bill,” he said.”
Was there no “b)”?
They vote based on how the NYT, CNN, MSNBC, and WaPo cover the legislative agenda. It is as simple as that - there is no reason to read the actual legislation when all you have to do is make sure you line up with the MSMstapo who will then carry your water (and even set up your appointments with lobbyists!). You can win in more than 2/3 of the country that way.
For the last 75 years, most have refused to read, and will continue to refuse to read, the legislation they vote for or against (and especially to vote present). There is no political force in existence which will get them to read this crap - in part because they know all the bills are filled with garbage bulker to make it that much more painful for us few gluttons for punishment to read. It is by design. Hundreds of thousands of words related to the importation of cabbage. Give me a break.
You can tell who reads (or tries to read) the legislation by who votes ‘no’ the most often. I have wasted enough of my own damn time reading legislation earlier signed into law to understand that no sane individual would have voted for, for example, the Patriot Act in its entirety if they read and completely understood the attendant titles and provisions. Delaying its passage by a few days so that the worst parts could be read, understood, and excised would not have imperiled American lives. Not that the additional time would have been used for that purpose...just more junkets and bromidic, platitudinal speechifying.
You cannot find ten men or women in the current Congress who are not corrupt and/or ignorant beyond redemption, and probably much less than one hundred for all Congressmen between the early 20th century and now (heavily weighted toward those in Congress prior to the 1950’s). You cannot find ten men or women who even make an effort to read what they are signing (sometimes it really is impossible - unless you can read **and understand** 100 pages of legalese an hour).
Not even term limits would fix it. The entire government system is a case study of perverse incentives on a grand scale.
This attitude of our Representatives is totally disgusting. What are they being paid for if not for reading and knowing fully the content of the bills they pass? My goodness, are we paying them just for their signature? I am so totally dismayed at the audacity of these people who feel they control the public, rather than that they are our servants and are supposed to DO AS WE ASK THEM TO DO IN THE INTEREST OF THE COUNTRY!
Where the hell is the GOP on this? AWOL!
They should ALL declare themselves on this fundamental issue. Why are they even talking to the Dem treasonous scum.
Why aren’t they on every conservative talk show, flooding the media ( yeah I know but there are some foreign media that would cover this)
The GOP should walk out, go home to their constituents and flog this issue day and night at a local level.
And any, and I mean any GOP senator or congress critter that didn’t walk out should have ALL GOP funds cut-off and be publicly branded as traitors to the republic.
P.J. O’Rourke had it right when he called them a parliament of whores.