11 responses to “As I Noted Before…”

1. 

   tom p

   February 13, 2009 at 6:27 pm

   October of ’02 all over again…
2. 

   just me

   February 13, 2009 at 8:11 pm

   There should be a law that requires all congress members to actually read the bills before they are allowed to cast a vote on them. Of course congress isn’t going to write that law,
3. 

   Drew

   February 13, 2009 at 8:16 pm

   As the President has told us, this is REALLY, REALLY important stuff. In fact, if we don’t pass the stimulus bill the economy may never, ever…recover. EVER!! And the world as we know it may cease to exist………But…..

   Actually read the bill??

   Read the bill? Read the bill? We don’t need to read no stinking bill…….
4. 

   Dave Schuler

   February 13, 2009 at 8:47 pm

   There should be a law that requires all congress members to actually read the bills before they are allowed to cast a vote on them.

   Wouldn’t take a law. House rules could take care of it. How they’d enforce that I don’t know.

   However, there is no constitutional requirement for literacy and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the members of Congress can’t read well enough to read the bills they’re voting on.
5. 

   Joey Buzz

   February 14, 2009 at 9:08 am

   http://www.barackobama.com/issues/ethics/

   Shine the Light on Federal Contracts, Tax Breaks and Earmarks

   * Create a Public “Contracts and Influence” Database: As president, Obama will create a “contracts and influence” database that will disclose how much federal contractors spend on lobbying, and what contracts they are getting and how well they complete them.
   * Expose Special Interest Tax Breaks to Public Scrutiny: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will ensure that any tax breaks for corporate recipients — or tax earmarks — are also publicly available on the Internet in an easily searchable format.
   * End Abuse of No-Bid Contracts: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will end abuse of no-bid contracts by requiring that nearly all contract orders over $25,000 be competitively awarded.
   * Sunlight Before Signing: Too often bills are rushed through Congress and to the president before the public has the opportunity to review them. As president, Obama will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days.
   * Shine Light on Earmarks and Pork Barrel Spending: Obama’s Transparency and Integrity in Earmarks Act will shed light on all earmarks by disclosing the name of the legislator who asked for each earmark, along with a written justification, 72 hours before they can be approved by the full Senate.
6. 

   Rick DeMent

   February 14, 2009 at 9:23 am

   You know it would be a lot easier to take all of you seriously if once during the spending orgy of the Bush years we would have seen republicans jumping up and down demanding that those bills got read. Iraq spending bills were passed and no one new where that money was going. All because “the President has told us, this is REALLY, REALLY important stuff”.

   Money vanished whole cloth into the Iraq sink whole and if any Democrat dared to question it they had to endure charges of lake of patriotism at best, treason and collaboration with the enemy at worse.

   Downturns like this is when you are supposed to spend money. Just because Bush decided to deficit spend when he should have been paying down the debt is not a good reason to oppose what needs to be done now. At least this money is getting spent domestically rather then getting thrown down an Middle East rat hole.
7. 

   mike

   February 14, 2009 at 12:14 pm

   I sleep better at night believing that the reason that Congress is so foolish/inept is because they can’t read. Please don’t shatter this hope by saying that if they read the bills they won’t pass them.
8. 

   Anderson

   February 14, 2009 at 12:30 pm

   They don’t care, Rick. They don’t care if the economy improves or not, provided THEY are okay.

   All they care about is their ideological purity.