83% Say Congress Should Post Bills Online For All To Read Before Voting On Them

Eighty-three percent (83%) of U.S. voters say legislation should be posted online in final form and available for everyone to read before Congress votes on it. The only exception would be for extreme emergencies.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds only six percent (6%) of voters disagree with this approach while 10% are not sure.

Of those who favor posting congressional bills in their final form on the Internet, 64% say they should be available to the public two weeks or more before Congress votes and 29% favor posting bills one week before a vote. Just four percent (4%) think three days before a congressional vote is soon enough, while one percent (1%) say one day is enough.

Among voters, there is no partisan disagreement on the issue. Eighty-five percent (85%) of Republicans, 76% of Democrats and 92% of voters not affiliated with either party favor posting non-emergency bills online for the public to read before they are voted on by Congress.

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Right now, Republicans in the House are trying to force a vote on a measure that would require that pending bills be posted online for three days before that chamber votes on them. A few Democrats have joined the effort, but, according to news reports, their party leaders are fighting the bill which they view as a GOP delaying tactic. There is certainly room for cynicism about the GOP’s allegiance to this particular reform at this time. Members of both parties often raise procedural issues when it works to their advantage and oppose them when it doesn’t. However, the poll question did not mention the health care legislation but applied to all legislation. The results suggest that an overwhelming majority of voters consider such procedures as little more than common sense.

A majority of all Republicans, Democrats, and unaffiliated voters all support posting the legislation in final form at least two weeks in advance of any vote.

Eighty-eight percent (88%) of voters say they are following news stories about the health care debate, with 59% following very closely. Only two percent (2%) say they are not following news about the debate at all.

Just 41% of voters nationwide now favor the health care reform plan, the lowest level of support yet measured. Fifty-six percent (56%) are opposed to the plan.

Republicans have been complaining all year that the Democratic majority leadership are rushing lengthy, complicated legislation like the $787-billion economic stimulus bill through the House and Senate without giving legislators adequate time to even read them.

Before the stimulus vote, 58% said most members of Congress would not understand what is in the plan before they voted on it. And even a prominent Democratic senator complained that that would happen, given the way their party leadership rushed the plan through Congress.

“Increasing transparency was also one of President Obama’s major goals,” the New York Times reports. “When he took office he pledged to make bills passed by Congress publicly available for at least five days before signing them, though that has rarely happened in his eight-month tenure.”

Only 16% of voters now give Congress good or excellent ratings for its performance, while 53% say it’s doing a poor job.

Being a member of Congress is now viewed as the least respected job one can hold in America out of a list of nine professions.

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“By the way, we should INSIST that these bills be written in PLAIN LANGUAGE that is easily understood.”

Don’t be silly! Obfuscation is the object.

It makes absolutely no sense to post bills online before they are voted on. I don’t think that it even makes sense to post them AFTER they have become law. Why? Because nobody understands them anyways. And plain language laws are a joke because they are highly subject to misinterpretation. Simple words make for simple thoughts. And the law is no place for simple thoughts. Period.

I probably know a lot more than most readers about this issue. But I won’t get into that at this point. We can dialogue for a bit.

Also, briefly, the framers would have never approved such an idea. Do you understand where I am coming from now?

Yes, I see where you’re coming from. If this were 1776 you would be absolutely correct, there would be no need to post bills for public consideration. That was then. You could trust a man’s word to be his bond. And when someone stepped out of line people of all persuasions moved to call them out and correct the record. Now, turn the clock ahead to 2009. Even a written contract will be challenged in court and it can take years and years, and a fortune, to get done what it was clear to both parties was to be done according to the contract. And a man’s word, absolutely worthless for the most part.

I favor publishing proposed laws for the simple fact that so many Congress critters are against it. Anything that makes them that uncomfortable can’t be all bad.

We live in a time when it’s OK to lie, even if you get caught.

Just a reminder. Barack Obama: “Public Will Have 5 Days To Look At Every Bill That Lands On My Desk”

See him say it here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5t8GdxFYBU

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