They should do their own taxes too
A read the bill rule for congress. The fact this is even an issue is pathetic. Via Glenn.
7 Responses to “They should do their own taxes too”
Remember, I do this to entertain me, not you.
Uncle Pays the Bills
 |
|
Find Local
|
Categories
- ATF (769)
- Death Match (10)
- Eminent Domain (225)
- In the bag (9)
- Notes to Junior (546)
- Poker (74)
- Recipes (142)
- Shotgun Noob (11)
- The Airing of Grievances (19)
- uncategorized (47,725)
October 13th, 2010 at 9:32 am
I like the idea of “prove the constitutionality of the bill” better…….. or perhaps putting page limits on bills……….. or perhaps limits on the number of things addressed in one bill.
October 13th, 2010 at 10:40 am
How do you go about proving they didn’t read the bill?
October 13th, 2010 at 11:15 am
Make each member certify, under penalty of perjury, that s/he has read the bill and is familiar with the contents. Make this a rebuttable presumption: e.g. if seven days were available to read a 2000-page bill, and the member were on vacation in Barbados for six of those days, it stands to reason that the member didn’t read the bill. Make the member tell his constituents either “I’ve read every bill that came up” or “I didn’t read this bill, and therefore didn’t vote on it, because [reason].”
October 13th, 2010 at 11:36 am
I’ve suggested a promise to vote “no” on a bill they haven’t been given a chance to read, but once again, if they did have the chance, did they?
October 13th, 2010 at 12:24 pm
Easy… how about no amendment, single issue bills?
October 13th, 2010 at 4:14 pm
The only way this works is if the authors of the bill themselves are required to read it and every referenced section, rule and earmark out loud in front of their entire assembly. The authors can take shifts, I’m not heartless, but only the authors signed onto the bill get to stand up in front of the class and do the reading.
Then the only ones that get to vote on the bill are the ones that listened to the ENTIRE READING. Finally, there must be a quorum of, say, 75% of the body meeting the voting requirement before a vote can go forward. If shenanigans are detected, I’d offer treason as the appropriate crime under which to prosecute the offending voter or person allowing the vote to go forward without quorum.
Any other system I can think of falls down on oaths and promises just like the current system has fallen down on constitutional amendments for single issue bills and balanced budgets (I’m thinking my state of MN here). Presence is binary and easy to verify with CSPAN archived at the Library of Congress.
October 13th, 2010 at 5:19 pm
aczarnowski wins. If they don’t read or hear the reading of all of it, publicly, they can’t vote. Certifications will be a pencil-whip, and a mere requirement will be waived just like PayGo every time.