Thursday, May 22, 2008

Jumping To Conclusions

Re: the Farm Bill snafu, Ben over at Taxing Tennessee adds 2 + 2 and comes up with five:
Opps...Congress forgets 34 pg section of Farm Bill

so the vote to override Bush's veto is null and void. Hmmmm...this would almost lead one to believe that NO ONE ACTUALLY READ THE BILL!!!!!

These idiots pass legislation everyday without reading the bills!!

Um, not necessarily. It means a 34-page section of the bill sent to the White House was different from the one Congress passed. So while they hopefully read what they voted on (and who knows, right?) no one re-read it in the printed packet that was sent to the White House for the President’s signature. With all the many versions a piece of legislation goes through, I can see how that might happen.

But hey, Ben’s version certainly fits nicely with the “government doesn’t work” meme that is the anti-tax crowd’s mantra.

By the way, I would have told Ben this over at Taxing Tennessee but like many right-wing blogs he doesn’t allow comments.

Anyway, I don’t for a moment think our Congress critters read every piece of every bill. We all remember the huge stink that was raised after it become public knowledge that Congress didn’t read the Patriot Act before it was passed. But of course, that’s when Republicans were in charge of Congress. I don’t remember Ben raising a stink about that.