Who Read the Stimulus Bill Before Voting On It? Answer: No One!

Congress just passed the one thousand plus page $787 billion Stimulus Bill. It is the most expensive piece of legislation in our country's history and it looks like very few if any of the Senators and Representatives even read it before they voted on it. To make matters worse, the people didn't have a chance to look at it, either.

This is not the first time this has happened. It happened with the TARP bailout bill (2008) that was rushed through Congress with few provisions for accountability; the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 which was Congress' Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailout and the PATRIOT Act (2001) that was rushed through Congress before the bill was even printed.

Congressional legislation, which can consist of hundreds or even thousands of pages of text, is routinely drafted by congressional staff members, special interest groups and/or lobbyists and oftentimes is not even read by the members of congress themselves. Although the people, via the U.S. Constitution, have exclusively given Congress the power to write our laws, many of our representatives have delegated this power to their staff members, government agency bureaucrats, special interest groups and corporate lobbyists who prepare much of the legislation.The danger is that these bureaucrats, special interest groups and lobbyists are not necessarily looking out for the best interest of the American people, but rather for the best interest of whoever is paying them. Could they slip in a paragraph here and a sentence there to promote their own objectives? Absolutely!

It would be very easy to do because no one is reading the legislation. Because of the sheer volume of material contained in proposed legislation, individual Members of congress simply do not have the time to read all of the legislation they are voting on. A prime example is the Federal budget that can run hundreds of thousands of pages.The current system has allowed many pieces of legislation to get through both houses of congress without adequate debate or understanding. The longer a piece of legislation is, the less likely it is that our Senators and Representatives will have the time or inclination to read the entire document.

By routinely failing to read what they are voting on, members of congress have given the American people many excessively long, sometimes incomprehensible and burdensome laws.It has allowed unpopular measures, earmarks, pork barrel amendments or hidden provisions for special interests to be attached to very popular legislation that few in Congress would be willing to oppose publicly. This practice is called “log-rolling.” Additions and deletions to legislation can even be made at the last minute. Votes are sometimes held with little debate or public notice and sometimes printed copies of the legislation are not available for legislators to read before they vote.

The sheer length of many of the bills proposed in congress deprives the average American citizen and their elected representatives of the opportunity to thoroughly examine the text of proposed legislation and amendments in detail prior to voting on it.

We need a “READ THE BILLS ACT” as drafted by DownsizeDC.org, that requires elected representatives to do the following before they can bring any legislation to a vote:

1. Read every word of every bill before a vote can be held on that bill.
2. Read every word of every old law that comes up for renewal under the sunset provisions.
3. Publish (including on the internet) every pending bill at least 7 days before a vote is held, to allow time for public comment.
4. Be present at the reading of bills and that all discussions relating to the bills be open, and
5, All legislators must certify that they have read and understood the bill, including any amendments, before voting on it.

A “Read the Bills Act” would not only eliminate a lot of poor legislation, it would also encourage elected representatives to propose legislation that is brief, understandable and to the point. The openness of the process will help reduce or possibly even eliminate the current practice of adding billions of dollars of non-related pork barrel amendments to "must pass" budget measures and other key legislation.

Any proposed legislation should address one specific issue only and any proposed amendments to the bill should only address the specific issue at hand. No pork barrel amendments of any kind and no unrelated riders should be attached to any bill.All votes on bills should be conducted by public roll call vote so that the American public will know who voted for or against a particular piece of legislation.

John Wallace
www.freedommovementusa.com/

Closing the Gate on Our Freedoms and Liberties

As any rancher, farmer or game warden can tell you, the best way to catch and domesticate wild animals that roam free is to destroy their natural instinct to forage or hunt for food. It doesn’t matter whether they are wild ponies on Assateague Island in Virginia, buffalos on the range in Wyoming, wild pigs in Borneo or wild dogs somewhere in the wilderness. It pretty much works the same way.

The first step in the process is to find a suitable place in the animal’s habitat where you can leave food out in the open. Pretty soon, the animals will find the food, eat it and will return again to see if there is more. Within a short period of time, the animals will come to that same location almost every day to eat the free food.

When the animals get used to coming every day, the rancher, farmer or game warden can install a fence down one side of the location where the animals come to eat. When they get used to seeing the fence, the wild animals will return and eat the food that is left for them. At some point, another side to the fence is installed. The animals will eventually get used to the new section of fence and will continue to return again and again to eat the free food. The process is continued until all four sides of the fence have been installed to form a compound, with an open gate installed in the final side. The wild animals, having become accustomed to getting free food at the location, will go through the open gate and enter the fenced in area to eat the food.

When the entire herd has come through the gate to eat in the fenced in area, the gate is then slammed shut and the whole herd is captured in the compound. They have now lost their freedom. At first, some of the animals run around trying to find an escape route, but eventually they tire and return to eating the free food. They become so used to eating the free food that is left out for them that they either forget, or lose the desire, to forage or hunt for food in the wild. As time goes by, they learn to accept their captivity.

This is similar to what is happening in America today. Moving ever so slowly towards socialism, our ever expanding and intrusive government bureaucracy is attracting more and more citizens and illegal aliens to the free food banquet at the federal trough, while at the same time adding sections of fences with increased governmental rules and regulations that will eventually take away their individual freedoms. Our so-called elected leaders keep handing out the free food on a regular basis in the form of federal grants, subsidies, affirmative action, supplemental income, rebates, stimulus packages, tax credits, and thousands of special programs designed to help particular groups of people who now see themselves as victims. Eventually, the recipients of these never ending and expanding social programs will come to rely on the federal government for their very existence.

Just like the wild animals mentioned earlier, it appears that a significant number of American citizens and illegal aliens are gradually becoming accustomed to feasting at the trough of big government and the number of people receiving government handouts on a regular basis is growing by millions every year. Unfortunately, it will not take long before a significant percentage of the American population becomes so used to receiving the federal assistance that is left out for them that they will either forget, or lose the desire, to escape the system and enjoy their freedoms and liberties.

The politburo in the new expanded American government will tell the people how much money they can earn, where they can go to school, what sodas they can drink, what foods they can’t eat, what kind of a car they can drive, where they can travel, what national ID card they must carry and it will impose any number of other restrictions on them. If we continue on this road to socialism, the American people will no longer be free. The question is: “Will they learn to accept their captivity at the hands of their new masters?”

Thomas Jefferson said: “A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have.” Americans must remember that we cannot fully enjoy our freedoms and liberties in America unless we keep our government limited. As our government grows and becomes more intrusive, as it is today, it is our freedoms and liberties that are becoming limited. Americans must remain vigilant in these trying times as there seems to be many traitorous elected officials in this country who would like to close the gate on our individual freedoms and liberties, as well as our nation’s sovereignty.