Posted on 07/10/2009 6:15:22 PM PDT by Kaslin
Honesty: Lawmakers voted on the stimulus and global warming bills without having read either. Eventually they'll vote on health care legislation that could fund unrelated items. Time to end this systemic fraud.
Waxman-Markey, the global warming bill, passed the House last month after Democrats added a 309-page amendment at 3 a.m. the morning before the vote, bringing that package of nonsense up to 1,200 or so pages.
The next piece of deception up for legislative consideration is the $1.6 trillion health care bill, a Washington lightweight at a mere 615 pages. The Boston Globe reports that it contains a provision for funding walking paths, bike paths, streetlights, gym equipment and farmers' markets.
We'd like to say the dishonesty of fixing those items to a health care bill is staggering. But we've become accustomed to Congress operating in secret and obscuring its activities.
Before it votes on health care, we have in mind another bill that Congress should take up. This one should be short, just a few words. It would be far more important to the future of the republic than fevered legislation establishing a public option for health care coverage or vainly trying to manipulate the climate.
This humble bill would simply require each member of Congress to sign a document saying he or she had read the legislation in full before they could vote for it.
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I'm all for it but what is the punishment?
This would be unfair to all of those in Congress who don’t know how to read.
Fair enough. However, many in Congress (and the executive branch as well) appear to be in need of a Remedial Reading Bill also ... but there are at least two other nagging obstacles preventing Congresspersons from reading their “work”: extreme institutional laziness, plus too few hours in the day, especially when you have to spend so much time stuffing your pockets with money from the public trough and political shake-downs.
There is also a need for a law that forbids omnibus bills. Each bill should have a single focus.
I have another well intentioned but silly idea: Let's get voters to sign a paper saying they know everything about the candidates and all the issues before they're allowed to vote.
The problem has nothing to do with reading a bill. I haven't read those bills either and I know they're a disaster. The problem is the people who get elected and the people doing the electing. They say you can't legislate morality. I say you can't legislate responsibility.
Here's proof: Does anyone remember Gramm-Rudman-Hollings? How well did that work?
What we need more than anything else (and won't get) is term limits. That way the corruption won't be so entrenched.
And how about that the freaking bill is written before the congress clowns vote on it?
When the Kneecap and Tax bill was voted on in the House, IT WAS NOT YET EVEN WRITTEN! Some amendments to the bill that didn’t yet exist were written and were on the House floor, but that’s it!
THAT IS TYRANNY!!!
This is already written into Article 4, Section 4. of the U.S. Constitution.
Section 4 - Republican government
"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence."
Basically, this means that we are guaranteed representation through a "representative republic" form of government. Our views are represented on our behalf by someone we elect to do so. If that person did not attend the Congressional session and was absent for his entire term, our "representation" did not exist. There is no difference between not being in attendance and not reading what is being voted on. In both cases, there is NO representation of anyone's views. If you are not aware of a law and it's effects, how can you claim to represent any side of the issue. You can't.
We are GUARANTEED representation by our Constitution. Remember this.
I say they have had their chance, & failed miserably. There is a handful in the House I’d keep, & a handful in the Senate...I’m talking maybe 7 from each area. The rest have to go.
They should be stripped of their pensions, and their salaries that come after their time serving is up. They should live like the rest of us have to...
They make me sick, and have made a complete mockery of our government by passing these ridiculous bills and not even reading them. What the hell do they think they’re getting paid for? Its time to un-institutionalize them, and let them start to smell just what it is they’re shoveling!
Yeah, but if they don’t read the bill then they don’t represent us but only themselves
And the penalty for lying that you read it will be???
(this is going to be good)
If they don't read the bill, they can't "represent" even their own viewpoints of what the bill might or might not contain. That is my point.
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