Legislators take advice from hundreds of sources before voting. It’s why staff are important elements in the work of a productive Congress. Congressional GOPers, when in majority, didn’t read all the bills. Heck, I sat in briefings with GOP leaders who started by saying, “What’s in this bill anyway to bring you all into my office today?”

Ron Paul can get away with claiming that “No one’s read the bill” so let’s stall it… feeding into the cynics. Pundits can do the same game to win listeners or attract needed attention and keep the red meat crowd salivating… but the simple truth is that legislators in Congress don’t read legislation unless they’re the primary sponsor… I have yet to see a Congressman pull out a red pencil like I’ve seen state legislators or Governors do when reading a bill poised for passage.

To argue otherwise is to prove one is shamefully ignorant of reality in DC.

That’s why I said it was a bogus argument. Not because I like or support the Democrat Spending bill –which I do not.

Comment by V the K — February 13, 2009 @ 9:32 pm – February 13, 2009

well, i promise you, V the K, i was more intellectually developed at 11 than you are today.

why do i get the feeling that none of the conservatives commenting on this blog have ever gotten laid?

Given that your mom still wipes your ass, I’m not surprised you don’t even know what that means.

How is this any different, ethically or morally, from the rapacious Wall Street-types running the credit system into the ground,

Wrong villain, Ted. “Wall Street types” are supposed to try to make money, by whatever means is both legal and available. That’s their job. The villains in the credit crisis are:

1) Federal regulators, for pushing the banks / Wall Street to change lending standards and make subprime loans

2) Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and the Federal Reserve for providing the vast quantities of money that made it not only possible, but almost (in a sense) necessary. Provide vast gobs of money to companies whose job is to use it, and it will be used.

i’ve resorted to insults because one of the great pieces of advice i was given as a kid went something like this:

“always wear clean underwear and never argue with a crazy man.”

How do you know? how do they know? The house voted to give it the 48 hours REQUIRED to read before passage, then broke that rule so Speaker Pelosi could catch her jet.

NO ONE KNOWS what’s in the damn bill.

Get a load of http://www.henriettahughes.com.

Every member who votes “yes” without personally-reading the “Porculus Bill” should be impeached for conduct unbecoming their Constitutional duties. And that should be true of ANY spending bill….

Most of this money isn’t even going to be spent this year, so why rush? Answer: There’s a hell-load of pork and special favors in this bill. They don’t want the public to know about it until it’s too late.

It’s bogus to argue that they don’t know what’s in the bill beacuse they didn’t read the bill or any bill, for that matter. These bills are written by teams of lawyers, overseen by teams of political operatives… the Democrat 2009 Spending Bill will likely be 1,800+ pages when it’s finished.

BTW, if anyone here wants to peruse the bill it can be found here:

http://appropriations.house.gov/

Should they read it all? I don’t expect them to… I expect them to get the best advice and vote appropriately on legislation. If we expected Congressmen to read even the major bills, my hunch is they’d never come home, never eat, never make committee, never sleep.

On the flipside, we do expect voters to enter the booth well informed and able to articulate a Congressional member’s stand on a bill or issue? Heck, most elections I’m happy that the voters care enough to show up. How many voters vote for a candidate because his name is Irish or sounds familar? How many times do voters vote No on a ballot initiative because the language was too long to read?

I don’t mean to pad the kneelers of Congress, but knocking ‘em because they didn’t read the bill like a Sears catalogue is bogus. And feeds into the ready, willingly eager hands of the cynics.

At least 7 of the lefties showed they had some brains. Too bad we can’t say that about the rest of the socialists in the DNC.

Regards,
Peter H.

I wonder if they’ll be allowed to spend it on lawyers, defending against ACORN’s lawsuits demanding MORE loans to people without money, a.k.a, toxic loans.