So Let It Be Read
(Paul Jacob, no speed reader he, hasn't read Congress's new
932-page bill to cap-and-trade greenhouse gases -- but then,
neither has Congress)
It's a laugh a minute on Capitol Hill, where folks who supposedly
represent us fritter away our freedom with giddy abandon. And
without a glance at the fine print.
Well, it's all fine print when you've got a cap-and-trade bill 900-
plus pages long. This bill would tax businesses that need to
produce more "greenhouse gases" than the new law would
allow according to a formula so congested that, well, it takes
932 pages to spell it out. If the bill passes, it's another punch
to the gut of the American economy.
For a while, it seemed that Republicans on the energy committee
might obstruct things, might insist that the bill be read. Aloud!
So the Democrats hired a speed reader. No reading was ever
demanded. But since the guy had been hired, he was asked
to zip through just a bit of the bill. His incredible machine-gun
delivery cracked everybody up.
Well, DownsizeDC.org isn't laughing. The activist group notes
that the cap-capitalism bill was rushed through committee so
fast that it could not possibly have been read, publicly or privately.
The group supports a Read the Bills Act to require every bill to
be read in full before the House and Senate . . . and require all
lawmakers to sign an affidavit affirming that they have read any
bill they vote on.
A sensible rule, long overdue.
Seriously.
This is Common Sense. I'm Paul Jacob.
http://www.CitizensInCharge.org
Paul Jacob is President of Citizens in Charge and theCitizens in Charge
Foundation, which sponsors both Common Sense and Paul's weekly Townhall Column.
The opinions expressed in Common Sense are Paul Jacob's and do not necessarily
reflect the opinions of Citizens in Charge or the Citizens in Charge Foundation.
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