Non Sequitur - 04.09.2007

This comic is pretty timely, since ComicStripPolitics.com has just joined the RTBA Coalition. More on that in a minute.

I know that these black and white strips can be hard to read after I shrink them to fit on the screen, so I’ll recap what it says: “The principle of the our right to petition the government vs. the reality.” On the door, it says “Dept. of Hubris. Our Mess is Your Problem.” The suggestion box is over a trap door leading who knows where.

It’s that last part that really strikes a chord with me. “Our Mess Is Your Problem”. As US citizens, we are accountable to follow every law passed by lawmakers on every level, federal, state, and local. As I’m sure you’ve heard many times, ignorance of the law is no excuse.

What really gets me though, is that ignorance of the law is a fine excuse for Congress, who doesn’t even have to read the bills that they make into laws. They can’t be bothered to read the actual legislation, but after it passes, we are required to obey the laws.

In February, Senator Diane Feinstein spoke in the Senate, complaining about a provision in the Patriot Act revision. Here is an excerpt from that speech:

“Unbeknownst to any of us, in March 2006, in the PATRIOT Act reauthorization, a provision was included that allows the Attorney General to appoint an interim U.S. attorney for an indefinite period of time.”

Did you catch that? “Unbeknownst to any of us.”

Somehow, a provision was voted on an approved by the Senators that no on seemed to know about. At least not the Democrats, which one would assume Feinstein is referring to when she says “us”.

So there we have it. Not only do the lawmakers not actually read the bills they pass, but they don’t even pretend that they made an effort to read them. Feinstein acts like she was somehow duped by the Republicans, when in actuality, if she had bothered to read what she was voting for, she would have seen this provision before approving the bill. There’s absolutely no excuse for a senator to vote for a bill like that without reading it completely.

On Wikipedia, it even says that Senator Feinstein was the original Democratic co-sponsor of a bill to extend the Patriot Act. Unless these two Patriot Act bills are actually separate from one another, it would appear that she didn’t even read the bill that she sponsored!

Am I the only one who thinks this is the most ridiculous thing they’ve ever heard? I’ve actually been told that Congress can’t possibly read all the bills they pass. They’re too long and complicated. Their aides read the bills, give them the gist of it, and then they can vote.

This is just stupid. First, if a bill is too long and complicated to simply read, how is the public expected to understand and obey the legislation that’s passed? Second, I didn’t elect a Congressional aide. I don’t want them being the one to decide what parts of a bill to tell my representative about. Obviously, these aides didn’t do a good job of explaining every provision to their bosses in the Patriot Act reauthorization, or Senator Feinstein wouldn’t be acting like she was tricked.

I wrap this up by mentioning that this site has joined the “Read The Bills Act Coalition”. As an objective political observer, I don’t want to associate this site with any type of partisan organization, but this group is non-partisan, and quite frankly, something that I think everyone can really get behind (except for politicians). Who wouldn’t want Congress to actually know and understand the laws that they are making us follow?

Requiring Congress to read all the bills it passes may seem problematic at first (and Congress is quick to talk around the issue to make it seem impossible), but if you read the DownsizeDC site, all potential concerns are addressed. There is really no reason that this can’t become a reality. Congress certainly doesn’t want to regulate themselves like this, but they are also ridiculous opportunists. If there’s a public movement for this bill, there will be plenty of supporters. Can you imagine a politician trying to explain why it’s a bad idea for them to read the bills they pass?

So visit DownsizeDC, and let me know what you think. No matter your political persuasion, this is simply a good movement to get behind.