Each member of congress should be required to pass a test demonstrating their understanding of a proposed bill's contents in order for their vote on it to count.
Discussion:
After months of nauseating debate about the pros and cons of various proposed components to the health care bill, it has become clear to pretty much the whole country, that most of our elected officials have NOT READ THE LEGISLATION. Remember writing a book report on a book you haven't read? That was awesome..."So Holden Caulfield was this guy who was totally the quarterback of the football team at his Texas school, and they won the big game and he went home with Pamela from Teen Wolf."
Yet politicians seem content to spew intentionally inaccurate statements about what parts of the bill would or would not accomplish. For example: a death squad will go to your parents house and kill them if a public option is included in the bill. And oh, the ole standby "look at how many pages that is...I mean, wow, 2,000 pages, that's a lot of paper."
The last 3 Harry Potter books totalled over 2,000 pages, and 12 year olds read those over a weekend. What is your excuse congressman? You get paid $180K with unlimited perks and better health care than most of the country. Was it too much to ask that you actually work a little and read the bill? I mean, I don't know how to say this but, if you don't read this, I will have to fire you.
If I didn't read the investment memorandum for a potential investment at my firm, and instead just told the boss "Nah, that deal was terrible", I think we know how long that job would last. I would love The Bobs to show up at congress on annual review day. "What would you say, ya DO here?" You have people skills or something?
These congressmen work for you. You pay them--via taxes--to provide a service: to represent your interests to the U.S. lawmaking and governing institutions, to craft and/or promote legislation aimed at accomplishing that end, and to report honestly and accurately about what progress is being made in that regard.
How can they do this if they haven't read the legislation, and instead employ tactics and will ultimately vote based on what their political party bosses tell them to do. Their--the political party's-- goal? Debatable, but your individual representative's goal is clearly not representing your best interest, it is more likely they aim to please their fellow party members in exchange for financial and strategic support in the next election cycle.
It's bad enough we don't have an IQ test of some kind before regular Joe's are allowed to take office, run our country and be in charge of hundreds of billions of dollars of tax revenues. We wonder why our national budget isn't balanced or why we keep getting owned in trade disputes with China...and the answer is because we elected salesmen to congress, not bankers or investors or negotiators. And have fun when Palin is back on TV. This country is too big, complex and important to be left in the hands of a hot hockey mom who can barely manage her own family, but that's a post for another time. But I don't think its too much to ask for these officials to have to prove to us that they did their homework before we send them in to take a test on our behalf.
Discussion:After months of nauseating debate about the pros and cons of various proposed components to the health care bill, it has become clear to pretty much the whole country, that most of our elected officials have NOT READ THE LEGISLATION. Remember writing a book report on a book you haven't read? That was awesome..."So Holden Caulfield was this guy who was totally the quarterback of the football team at his Texas school, and they won the big game and he went home with Pamela from Teen Wolf."
Yet politicians seem content to spew intentionally inaccurate statements about what parts of the bill would or would not accomplish. For example: a death squad will go to your parents house and kill them if a public option is included in the bill. And oh, the ole standby "look at how many pages that is...I mean, wow, 2,000 pages, that's a lot of paper."
The last 3 Harry Potter books totalled over 2,000 pages, and 12 year olds read those over a weekend. What is your excuse congressman? You get paid $180K with unlimited perks and better health care than most of the country. Was it too much to ask that you actually work a little and read the bill? I mean, I don't know how to say this but, if you don't read this, I will have to fire you.
If I didn't read the investment memorandum for a potential investment at my firm, and instead just told the boss "Nah, that deal was terrible", I think we know how long that job would last. I would love The Bobs to show up at congress on annual review day. "What would you say, ya DO here?" You have people skills or something?
These congressmen work for you. You pay them--via taxes--to provide a service: to represent your interests to the U.S. lawmaking and governing institutions, to craft and/or promote legislation aimed at accomplishing that end, and to report honestly and accurately about what progress is being made in that regard.How can they do this if they haven't read the legislation, and instead employ tactics and will ultimately vote based on what their political party bosses tell them to do. Their--the political party's-- goal? Debatable, but your individual representative's goal is clearly not representing your best interest, it is more likely they aim to please their fellow party members in exchange for financial and strategic support in the next election cycle.
It's bad enough we don't have an IQ test of some kind before regular Joe's are allowed to take office, run our country and be in charge of hundreds of billions of dollars of tax revenues. We wonder why our national budget isn't balanced or why we keep getting owned in trade disputes with China...and the answer is because we elected salesmen to congress, not bankers or investors or negotiators. And have fun when Palin is back on TV. This country is too big, complex and important to be left in the hands of a hot hockey mom who can barely manage her own family, but that's a post for another time. But I don't think its too much to ask for these officials to have to prove to us that they did their homework before we send them in to take a test on our behalf.
"I am not saying you can't vote...just prove to me that you know what you're voting on, otherwise, your vote doesn't count." -Me
