So, a Senior Congressman keeps lighting the match - making fun of the process?
Once again, my favorite sign from the 4/15 Manchester, NH TEA Party was:
"$787 Billion and they didn't even read the bill!"
This IS one of the most bitter pills of the legislative process that galls most people associated with the TEA Party movement, and now, the average citizen is starting to slow burn.
How can they, these arrogant legislators with such straight faces, pass legislation without reading the bills! Simply put, for a legislator to vote for for something they have not read, is a slap to the faces of citizens that voted them into office. Unfortunately, the high incumbency rate due to either voter apathy or for other reasons, many of these elected clowns don't care.
Or, as in this case, flaunt it. We have here Democrat Congressman John Conyers (MI) who has a gaffe moment - actually telling the truth that he fails to do his job - it's too hard! Or the flip side, he's a dunce (seemingly runs in the family - his politician wife, who was a Detroit City Councilor, is now in deep doo-doo). Anyways, back to the Congressman:
During his speech at a National Press Club luncheon, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Democratic Congressman John Conyers (D-Mich.), questioned the point of lawmakers reading the health care bill.
“I love these members, they get up and say, ‘Read the bill,’” said Conyers.
“What good is reading the bill if it’s a thousand pages and you don’t have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?”
Attitude - why bother? It isn't that important.
The sad thing is that if he, as a Chair of an important Congressional Committee and part of the Democrat leadership, is not reading the bill, who is? Has our Republic devolved such that only staffers and lobbyists know what's in store for the rest of us?
Also, there's this thought - if the bills are THAT complicated so that "two days and two lawyers" are needed to understand it, doesn't that automatically tell these clowns they're doing this wrong?
Or, once again, are they trying to hide something from us? Is it time to rescind our consent to be governed ? Or, as our friend DCE has suggested - don't vote them in - do a draft:
As for the Senate, we believe it actually works pretty well as is in that it was designed to be the stabilizing force in the Legislative branch. The House of Representatives is where the real change needs to come. People seem to think that because Representatives only serve two-year terms they have no real power, but nothing could be further from the truth. Collectively the House outweighs the Senate and the Presidency and as such it needs to be more accountable to the people. We would make it so by simply returning it to the people. Do away with elected Representatives and institute a draft.
One fine day, there is a knock on your door. There stand two Federal Marshals. One of them hands you a letter. "Congratulations!" the letter would read, "You have been chosen by the Selective Service Administration to serve your Congressional District as its Representative to the House for a period not to exceed three years." They give you five minutes to pack a small overnight bag, kiss the spouse and kids goodbye, and then bundle you off to do your duty.
We could run a draft every year, replacing a third of the House each time so that there would always be a group of Representatives present who were familiar with the way things worked. As far as restrictions go, limit eligibility to any citizen over age 21 who has not been convicted of a crime in the past five years and we would also suggest that no one be allowed to serve consecutive terms. You might be drafted again (unlikely, given the numbers) but never twice in a row. A final restriction that is almost always suggested by anyone with whom we have ever discussed this: no lawyers in the House.
Beyond the very simple restrictions we would add dispensations for extreme medical situations and the like, but still make it very difficult to weasel out of serving. We also would need to take a close look at compensation, job retention and the fulfillment of contracts and other obligations that might have been entered in to before the prospective Representative was drafted. While this might seem a daunting task we must remember that we would only need to deal with about 150 people a year. Somehow we have to think that the government has the resources to deal with this.
Why do we like this idea?
Go read the rest!
