Read the Bills act

[Valandil]

You are oversimplifying this a bit too much. They know what the hell they are voting on for the most part and they are also well aware that there is very likely some pork in there as well.

They might not like the pork in there, but when it comes time to vote, if 90% of the Bill is the real issue then some pork they might not completely agree with isn't about to stop that bill from getting its votes if its something of any importance. A bill that should have passed but doesn't because of extra pork on it is a huge waste of time. And you also have to look at why that pork is in there to begin with - congressmen have constituencies they have to answer to...a lot of that pork is to make that important constituency happy. Happy constituency means you get reelected, and in the house that is a constant battle every friggen 2 years (which is too short imo).

I dunno, the solution is hardly simple. You can say "hey, read the whole fucking bill," but even if they do and don't like some of it, do they like what its mostly about and is it a key issue? If so...they will still vote on it. Most of us don't like it and I think it does need to change, but the whole culture of how legislation and what not also needs to be reformed and updated.

The answer may be to abolish Congress as it is, and just make the legislative branch a bunch of committees so that each committee would be tasked with enacting laws that pertain to their sphere of influence. Essentially this is what we have de facto as most bills are "passed" in committee and the votes on the floor of the House/Senate are just formalities. However, I think if we could just directly elect individuals of expertise to specific committees rather than having a handful of Congressional representatives serve on numerous committees, it would streamline the process somewhat and allow public officials to narrow their focus to certain topics. Would it require more elected officials? Yes, but then again since when can 535 public officials efficiently represent ~350-400 million citizens?

 

[Zoolander]

The answer may be to abolish Congress as it is, and just make the legislative branch a bunch of committees so that each committee would be tasked with enacting laws that pertain to their sphere of influence. Essentially this is what we have de facto as most bills are "passed" in committee and the votes on the floor of the House/Senate are just formalities. However, I think if we could just directly elect individuals of expertise to specific committees rather than having a handful of Congressional representatives serve on numerous committees, it would streamline the process somewhat and allow public officials to narrow their focus to certain topics. Would it require more elected officials? Yes, but then again since when can 535 public officials efficiently represent ~350-400 million citizens?

Yea the whole committee thing is kind of ridiculous really. There is so much bull shit associated with deciding who gets on what committees and like you said, that is where most of the work is done. The idea of electing people into certain committees is interesting and makes sense on paper, but of course it will never happen, at least in our life times. The more educated I become, the more I see the need for specialization regarding any topic that would be covered in congress. Yet we still attack these issues and legislation with a very broad approach that is incredibly outdated (which is an increasing theme).

People with specific skill sets and knowledge should really be put in charge of dealing with their respective areas of expertise, not this "well lets put this guy on this shitty committee because he alienated some of us and is new to Washington." When I first learned Hillary would be taking the Secretary of State job I was a bit surprised she would leave her gig in the senate, but the more I learn about how congress really works the more I understand why she got the hell out.

Changes to how congress works would be incredibly difficult and a very slow process I would imagine. I mean it took quite some time for it to reach its current state of how things are run and it is an evolving system. I just think it needs to really start evolving in a different direction.

 

[Keryan]

A little pork? The stimulus package had about 400 BILLION in pork spending. They passed the Bank Stimulus without reading it, so Hundreds of BILLIONS was lost. There had been no safe gaurds or accounting in place. The people who were against it even stated BEFORE it was passed that there were no safe gaurds. A few months later.. oh no where did the money go... They did not bother to read the bills and passed them anyway. Now WE are stuck with TRILLIONS in debt, 10% job loss and a government that is confounded with why things are not going the way they wanted.

The Banking stimulus was to put $$$ out to be loaned. It did not work. The stimulus filled with so much pork failed to create or peserve the jobs in the long run. Where I live most of it is going into short term projects. Someone will have a job for a short time then be back at square one. The governement forced bank take overs which has caused some solid banks to now have serious difficulty. The governement is now running auto companies. Will they actually read the contracts they are signing or just X on the dotted line.

I personally think they should have to read the bills before voting. They should also go over existing bills/laws and see if they can be revamped rather than create new ones which might create conflict with old ones. I don't know about you, but when my house gets cluttered I go through and organize things.

Can anyone tell me what our congressmen and senators have given up during these hard times to help us? People are taking cuts to hours and pay so a company can afford to keep all their workers. Have the people who work for us offered a pay cut to help offset costs and help prevent some tax hikes? The lowest paid senator makes about 300k a year. Why is it the working american class is expected to sacrifice but the people who represent us are not.