Comments on: Thriller Night

By: fedupinOHIO

fedupinOHIO — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 16:58:31 +0000

Wonderful post Jim/Ohio. That is a very good idea and it would be wonderful if they would put some kind of law in to effect that the House and Congress would have to do that before passing anything. We The People would get a chance to read what is going on before it gets passed and Maybe our voices would be heard.
It may be a pipe dream but its worth trying…

By: Janet

Janet — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 16:27:05 +0000

Since President Obama, has been in office I’ve seen more emergency spending bills come before Congress men and women who have not been given ample time to read and clearly understand the effects of these bills than any other time in our history. Fear and urgency are being used as a strategy to push through bills with unprecedented spending and little or no Congressional budget oversight. The $607 trillion dollar spending bill is an example of this.

In recent weeks the House debated the Climate and Energy bill. At it’s inception the bill started with 600+/- pages. Thursday, June 25, 2009, at 3:09 a.m. another 300+/- pages were added to the bill. Friday, June 26, 2009, the final bill with 1400+/- pages were voted on and passed by 219 ayes and 212 noes. During the debate many legislatures did not have a copy of the bill and those who did where incomplete; yet, this bill went forward and was passed by the Majority of House of Representatives elected officials.

Congressman John Boehner, attempted with his 600+/- pages plus another 300+/- amended pages added separately at 3:09 a.m., Thursday morning, June 25, 2009, to spell out major inconsistencies for an hour on the House floor. He was highly appreciated by those who voted against the bill for making an honest effort in attempting to prevent a bill of this magnitude from being passed. The bill was dishonest in that it was not clearly written and assembled with a proper amount of time allowed for members of the House to read and debate it’s entirety.

Congress should not be voting on bills that are incomplete and have not been given to all it’s members with ample time for critique prior to coming before the floor for debate. This is dishonest!

Congress should be required that bills be posted for all members as well as, American citizens to read giving an appropriate amount of time for revue prior to being put up for vote. This could be 3 days or more and if changes are made during debate the 3 days start over in order for everyone to have time for comments.

The bills could be posted to the Internet under both the House and Senate web sites.

Congress needs to control itself in a more appropriate professional and educated manner. They represent this nation and I for one do not like what the world is witnessing which appears to be more greed and dishonesty than managing this nations needs.

By: Dennis Flannery

Dennis Flannery — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:03:20 +0000

I can appreciate the demands on a legislators time and understand the comparison you make. But your comparison is an illegitimate one as you do not incorporate the consequences of each scenario. If I do not read my auto policy, I alone (maybe my immediate family) am affected if I make a mistake. If a Congressman does not read a bill and makes a mistake, an entire group of people, a constituency, a nation is affected. Add to that that Congress is loathe to ‘recall’ any legislation (i.e. a defective Pinto of a bill), and the consequences increases by a significant magnitude.

By: L. Baber

L. Baber — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:57:37 +0000

Perhaps if the interested members of the electorate had the opportunity to know what their “representatives” were voting on, we could sharpen our communications with Washington instead of getting an incomplete and usually slanted headline through the media.

Shame on all of them.

By: ANDREW

ANDREW — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:55:47 +0000

In my view, I would much rather our legislators pass up interviews with the media, hold off on grilling executives, and explain to their constituents that they are reading the bill that is about to be voted on, so that they can make certain that it is in the best interests of everyone. Including the media, the executives under scrutiny, and the constituents who are waiting.

I believe that if all the legislation were actually read, that there would be less need to be grilling exe’s, explaining to constituents why they voted yes on a piece that had damaging legislation in it.

I could be wrong, but this is just the way I feel and believe.

By: Jim Babka, Ohio

Jim Babka, Ohio — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:43:00 +0000

DownsizeDC.org has, for a couple of years now, been proposing a law requiring the bill be read aloud on the floor of the House and Senate, and then that a seven day waiting period, during which the bill the would be posted online, occur before a final vote is taken. Really, is that too much to ask? We have to obey all the laws, and ignorance of the law is no excuse for constituents. Why is it OK for Congress to be ignorant of the laws they are imposing on us?

By: David brooks

David brooks — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:39:18 +0000

Great analysis, Chad!

By: Unbelievable

Unbelievable — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 08:16:00 +0000

Are you serious.. that we have people in the white house who are so busy.. they dont have time to read what they are about to pass.. OH WAIT!! the Dems did that before with AIG they will just use your taxpaying dollars and go back and amend what they dont think was really going to suit them anyway.. well if theres anything left of this country when they are done.. SOOO SAD.. I guess it wouldnt do me any good to send them Glenn Becks Common Sense.. they wouldnt bother to read it either!!