Minister Al-X

Matthew Yglesias: Why No One Reads The Bills

Yglesias today offers a frightening look at the amount of time that Congress takes to read a bill before voting on it

He notes:

Clearly, at times it's necessary to put a premium on speed and it may not be possible to discuss everything in as leisurely a fashion as one might like. Looking at the legislation in question, however, it's clear that such pressing emergencies rarely account for the extraordinarily short intervals that are being permitted. Instead, the basic intention here is to shield legislative activity from public scrutiny so that influential members can get away with various misdeeds motivated by self-interest or narrow interest group politics that might be extremely unpopular if they saw the light of day. It's not a practice that can be said to advance conservatism, as such, in any substantial way. Rather, it is designed merely to facilitate corruption and abuse of power, along with providing a certain level of partisan advantage while enhancing the power of the congressional leadership to discipline members of the Republican caucus by making them increasingly dependent on the whims of conferees.

posted by Anonymous @ 4:33 PM