Almost as soon as President Obama proposed his now-famous stimulus spending package, Governor Bobby Jindal (R-LA) started saying that he would refuse some of the money. He was joined by several other governors. Jindal wanted to reject an extension in unemployment benefits because accepting the money would obligate Louisiana taxpayer to pick up the tab for the extension after federal funding runs out. But on Tuesday Louisiana’s state legislature overrode Jindal’s decision; not because they didn’t agree with him but because they never read a bill that they were voting on.
Louisiana is a Republican controlled state. The Governor is a Republican. And the State Legislature is controlled by Republicans. In fact, the State Legislature is controlled by Republicans that agreed with Jindal on rejection of some federal “stimulus” funds. There is absolutely no way that Democrats could have gotten the legislature to vote to override Jindal’s decision. So they didn’t even try.
Instead, they stooped to what many are calling a dirty trick. At the last minute, Democratic Representative Avon Honey sneaked a clause to override Jindal’s decision into an unrelated bill on unemployment compensation. And the bill passed with the unanimous support of the GOP.
I’m a conservative so you may be surprised by my reaction to all of this. Yes, I do think that placing riders on bills at the last minute is somewhat underhanded. But legislative rules in Louisiana, most other states, and at the federal level allow this tactic. In the case of Louisiana, the Republicans have not bothered to change the state’s legislative rules to prevent this type of thing from happening. That’s their own fault and it has come back to bite them. It's going to bite their taxpayers too.
The Republicans who voted for this bill in the Louisiana State Legislature have nobody to blame but themselves. It is absolutely unconscionable that they would vote for legislation that they didn’t even read. Unfortunately, Louisiana’s State Legislature is not an anomaly. It happens at all levels of government; local, state and especially at the federal level. Bills are routinely brought to the floor of state legislatures and the Congress of the United States and voted on by people who never even read what they contain. These bills often contain pork barrel spending and political favors. And all too often they contain measures that are politically unpopular at a state or national level, but which fall under the category of “pet project” for the legislators that include them. This often happens on major pieces of legislation and with documents used in the debates leading up to passage of that.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has admitted that in 2002 he never read the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) presented to Congress by the Bush Administration prior to casting his vote for the Iraq war. That NIE was the administrations justification to invade Iraq; something which Reid supported with his vote. But according to Reid, only six Senators read the executive summary of the NIE prior to casting their votes. Hillary Clinton was actually confronted by one of her constituents on the same topic during her presidential run. She was repeatedly asked about the NIE with the question, “Did you read it?” Her only response was that she had been briefed.
Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA) has complained about a provision of the Patriot Act – which she supported – and not understanding how it made it into the bill. It is apparent that she never read it. More recently, the last so-called stimulus bill passed by Congress was presented to members the night before it was voted on. This is a bill that will leave American taxpayers holding the bag for more than $1 Trillion dollars of debt by the time it is paid back, but nobody who voted for the bill had the time to read it.
Simply put, this is government run amok. No legislator deserves your vote if they vote for legislation that costs you money or restrict s your liberties without reading that legislation first! The mainstream media has repeatedly defended this practice by telling the viewing public that legislators can’t be expected to read every bill from cover to cover. Why not? Isn't that what we pay them to do? But the media will tell you that the bills are just too long. But whose fault is that? The answer is “Congress”. If they wanted to make bills simple, and have them deal with a single subject at a time, they certainly could do that.
If Congress is going to pass bills that are thousands of pages long, then they need to give members the time to read those bills prior to a vote, and require them to do so. The idea that they simply don’t have the time to read everything they vote on is ludicrous. If that’s the case, they should not be alowed to collect their pay checks. If you told your boss that you had risked your company’s money, or entered into a contract that you hadn’t read, you’d be fired. And rightfully so. That’s the message that we all need to send to Congress in the 2010 mid-term elections. If they’re not going to read what they are voting on, then we should fire each and every one of them regardless of party affiliation.
