Legislating In A Hurry Is Bad Idea

I've been replaying the past two Congressional years in my mind, and the major thing that stands out is how much of a hurry this Democrat-led Congress has been in. And this all-fired rush started at the very beginning of PresBo's term.

Every major initiative pushed by the very liberal Democrats has been rammed through so quickly that many Congressman didn't have much chance to READ the bill, much less analyze it to determine if the bill is a good one or not.

We saw this with the bailouts, the stimulus, and health care. All three were pitched as emergency measures that absolutely had to pass immediately, without review, else the entire country would explode, or fall into a flaming vat of marshmallow cream... or something.

Remember Pelosi's famous statement that we'd have to pass ObamaCare in order to see what's in it? Uh, I know I'm not an incredibly smart and ultra-hip liberal Congressman, but... couldn't we find out what is in it by READING THE DAMNED BILL before it's passed? Open debate, especially on massive bills that would impose sweeping new programs and regulations, is not only a good thing, it is absolutely essential to responsible governing.

But it didn't stop there.


We saw the same things more recently with the tax extension bill and the 2011 omnibus budget bill that Democrats ignored until after the election and then insisted it pass toot sweet. (That means fast.)

And in each case, sober reflection has discovered elements in these bills that are bad. Whether it's the 1099 provision of ObamaCare or the newly massive stimulus spending in the tax extension bill, each of these "pass-it-before-you-read-it" bills contained measures that many, if not most, Congressmen would really rather not have been in there.

The idea is for Congress to craft the best bill possible and get it passed. How can this be done when the bill itself is kept secret until just before the vote, and Congressmen are discouraged from reading it not only by the time constraints but also by the massive size of the bill? Congress needs to stop trying to enact massive bills and instead return to the day when small bills on targeted issues were the norm.

The newest "gotta-get-it-done" bill is the START treaty. I'm sorry, but Congress has no business quickly passing a treaty that will bind how this nation engages in its own defence. This treaty should be reviewed, analyzed, and debated to a fair-thee-well, so that each and every Senator knows exactly what is in it and the possible ramifications of each clause. How else can responsible governing take place?

If Congress is in a massive hurry to get things passed instead of actually doing their jobs to make sure the bills they vote on are good ones, then hidden things (intentional or not) will always come back to bite us in the end.

Since the current Congressional leadership has shown itself incapable of legislating responsibly, Congress should refuse to vote on the START treaty until next year. Congress should take the time to do things RIGHT, instead of rushing quickly to get something passed, and thus inflicting their avoidable mistakes on this nation.

Friends don't let friends pass huge bills quickly.