[PLUG] Our Senator Ron
Dave
dave at dhdo.org
Sat Mar 4 10:19:37 UTC 2006
On Fri, 2006-03-03 at 23:53 -0800, Elliott Mitchell wrote:
> >From: Dave <dave at dhdo.org>
> > I would venture a guess that Wyden knows exactly what he's doing.
> > Rarely do Senators introduce legislation when they're unaware of most
> > (if not all) of the implications of that legislation.
>
> You're very optimistic.
>
> I think at least one survey was done which discovered that no Senator
> read the Patriot Act before passing it. True, that doesn't mean they were
> unaware of the implications, but you should agree that is a bad sign at
> best. If you've looked at the amount of legislation which goes through,
> let alone the amount introduced, you'd realize there is no way they could
> realize the consequences of all of it. Further all too often they try to
> legislate technical issues, for which they don't have the background. In
> these situations how would it even be possible for them to know?
I make a distinction between "introduce legislation" and "vote on the
bill"; most legislators *don't* read everything that comes across their
desk, but if they wrote (or co-authored) a bill, I'd hope they have some
idea what it does. The PATRIOT act was notorious for being rushed
through and I'm pretty sure you're right on that count -- no one read it
fully.
True, "all the implications" is a bit broad, I suppose. I suppose I
should say they have an idea of what they intend the bill to do and have
written it accordingly.
--
-Dave
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