Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Hoyer: bills garner very few votes if lawmakers actually read bill before voting

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) said, "If every member pledged to not vote for it if they hadn’t read it in its entirety, I think we would have very few votes."

I don't know if he means that they are too lazy, so few would read the lengthy bills, whatever the bill may be, or that if they read it and the true nature of the bill would be exposed and as a result few would vote for the bill. But, Hoyer definitely let us in on a tidbit of truth: The members of Congress do not, and will not, read in their entirety anything they are voting for.

This means that the members of Congress are either voting party only, regardless of what the bill says, or they are relying entirely on the leadership to explain to them what these bills say, rather than investigating themselves. Perhaps both scenarios are true.

How can a representative of the people govern appropriately without knowing in full what they are voting for?

"But, Doug, the bills are so long, nobody could possibly go through them. . . "

Then the language is too complicated, and not concise enough. The founding fathers started a nation with the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, and combined these documents don't even remotely approach a hundred pages, much less a thousand or two.

Besides, there is no excuse for this. The politicians criticized credit card companies and mortgage lenders for making lending contracts too long and complicated, yet they can't even follow their own advice. And what kind of imbecile agrees to something without reading all of the fine print? These bills, from the Climate Bill to the Health Care Bill, are filled with pork that has nothing to do with the bills, and provisions that hammer the American people in the case of taxation and loss of liberty.

Have I read the entire bills?

Of course not, they won't allow the public access to the bills - they are afraid we might actually read what they aren't willing to, and then may discover what the freedom killing government officials and are really up to - and it can't be good.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Democratic Leader Laughs at Idea That House Members Would Actually Read Health-Care Bill Before Voting On It - CNS News, Monica Gabriel and Marie Magleby

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