Legislative smuggling
By Rense Johnson
Chairman, Citizens for Term Limits
September 25, 2009
The Rasmussen poll of September 22, 2009 reveals:
66% Angry at Government Policies
60% Say Neither Party Has Answers
Sixty-six percent (66%) of voters nationwide say they’re at least somewhat angry about the current policies of the federal government. That figure includes 36% who are Very Angry.
Rasmussen reports that “only 30% are not angry about the government’s policies, including 10% who are Not at All Angry.
“Adding to the voter frustration is the fact that 60% believe neither Republican nor Democratic political leaders have an understanding of what is needed today.
“Among those who are Very Angry about government policies, 80% say that neither political party’s leaders have the answers.”
All this is very frustrating to those who truly care about the kind of future we are leaving to those who come after us.
It’s hard to believe that the kind of health care bill that will be best for America must be more than 1,000 pages long and full of gobbledygook that even the lawyers could argue with each other about.
Deliberate? Of course.
Our nation is being victimized by legislative smuggling by Career Politicians. Most politicians don’t want us to understand what is in their bills, so they make them seem arcane and possibly subject to interpretation now, so they can be interpreted their own way after the President signs them.
This brings about an incalculable cost to our nation, in terms of unnecessary committees and sub-committees, time wasted in meaningless debate, vying for TV face time, and futile records maintained. (How many pages in the Congressional record?)
Any experienced term paper writer, knowing that he or she will be graded on clarity and succinct word usage would know how to get the job done, writing a law in plain English that would contain perhaps 50 pages, understandable by all who have a minimal education.
There should be a law to protect the nation from congressional legislative smuggling. Perhaps that function could be assigned to the Congressional Budget Office, which would have much less work to do when Congress (in this case one committee of the Senate) stops loading down the process with 500 instances of smuggling (amendments).
Americans want smaller, more economical, more manageable, less bureaucratic government. Why?
Because it is our taxes that pay the bills.
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