What Good Is Reading?
I know that, at this point, nothing that politicians do should surprise me anymore.
But I can’t help it. I still, at times, naively assume that some people exercise the same prudence in voting as they do in other important aspects of their life, such as buying a home.
Hmmm, perhaps that’s not the best example. If all the US homeowners who bought a house that they knew they could never afford voted in the same manner, then we’d end up with a government led by a man who has never achieved anything.
Which, strangely enough, is exactly what happened.
Anyway, my point is that politicians always find new ways to corrode the popular opinion of politics. It’s like it’s some inside game for them, whereby the politician that can inflict the most damage on the body-politic wins. I’m just not sure what prize they think they’re going to receive.
The new odds-on favorite for this honor is Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) who positively sneers at the foolish notion that he, or any other representative, should read the bills on which they vote.
Precisely what, then, does he think his job entails?
Simply taking bribes like his wife, perhaps?
He does have a point when he says that you need lawyers and more than two days to read a 1,000 bill (referring to cap ‘n’ tax). But the answer to that is not to then not read the bill, but to make it less needlessly complex and allowing the appropriate time in Congress for debate.
When it comes time to perform the post-mortem, the Chineses nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek will be proven right (again): Communists are a cancer of the heart.
on 
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July 27th, 2009 at 16:51
don’t know – - seems to me that out of 100 senators and some 435 representatives that the majority of them are actually lawyers!!! and probably each have a dozen or so on their staff…..conyers is a strange guy anyway…….
July 27th, 2009 at 16:52
Good point, Don (and welcome) – they’re all frikkin’ lawyers, anyway. Morons!
July 28th, 2009 at 13:33
I just sent off an email to my reps about reading bills. I didn’t not issue any threats, but I told them in no uncertain terms that are working for the people and they had better get their act together. I also called them on spreading hysteria about how bills need to be passed NOW or else the sky will fall, chicken little. So, now my file at the FBI will probably be updated and my name moved to somewhere near the top of the list for the re-education camps. I’m sure they get actual threats from people which saves me for the moment. I’m not crazy, just mad as hell. And I’m tired of walking on eggshells when writing letters to these crooks. They don’t respect us, so why should I respect them?
July 28th, 2009 at 14:51
Anon, I couldn’t agree more. Politics has been thoroughly debased but it would be so easy to restore some public faith – term limits (obligatory or voter-enforced) would be a great start. Politics should not be materially enriching, yet that is the sole reason why most of today’s politicians run in the first place.