Something we can all support
Hat tip, Balloon Juice.
I think this is something both the right and left side can support and I hope that bloggers make this into a great issue in the upcoming months. Its been far to easy to pass laws in this country in which no one knows exactly what the hell is 'passing'.
ReadtheBill.org is a new national organization dedicated to forcing Congress to post all proposed legislation online for 72 hours before it goes to the floor of Congress. We call this the "72 Hours of Sunshine Rule". It is needed because Congress has degenerated into chaos. The House of Representatives still has a rule on the books requiring proposed legislation be available to members for three days. But the House waives this rule routinely and rubber stamps huge bills in the middle night, clueless of their content or cost. Senate rules are fuzzier but the result is the same. This chaos in Congress costs every American. Provisions and giveaways slipped through Congress are one reason that the U.S. has a national debt of $8 trillion. These sneaky provisions also invite plain-old corruption.
posted by Katinula | 5:05 PM
2 Comments:
It is a good idea. I am not sure how effective it will be at accomplishing its goals though. I imagine that the 'signal to noise' ratio of people reading and either misunderstanding or louding decrying a pet peeve will mean that it does little good.
I tend to think that it will do some good, provided it has some plain language explanation of what the bill truly means written by a non-partisan entity.
Kind of like when they send the ballot to your house befor an election that spells out exactly the costs of a bill will be.
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