“I love these members, they get up and say, ‘Read the bill.’”
“What good is reading the bill, if it’s a thousand pages and you don’t have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?”
–Democratic Congressman John Conyers (D-Mich.)
Dear Congressman Conyers,
What good is reading the bill? Well, it’s your job. Reading bills isn’t my job. I’m just an artist/housewife/blogger. My job is making art, doing housework, and blogging, yet somehow, in my spare time the last few days, I read the thousand page bill in addition to several other pieces of national and state legislation. I didn’t need two lawyers to explain any of it to me. If reading bills and working on legislation was my job, the one I was elected and paid to do, I imagine I would have even more time to sit around reading bills. But it isn’t my job to do so, and it isn’t the job of your constituents to do so either, which is why they elected you.
If you are unwilling or incapable of doing your job, might I suggest you resign, so a person more willing and capable could take your place?
Sincerely,
Concerned Citizen
You do know that in that case he’ll be replaced by someone who still doesn’t have time to read the bill but just doesn’t care, right? That’s what most of our lot are like.
Someone should start a literacy program for the idiots in DC. I firmly believe none of them even knows how to read.
Perhaps I’m coming from an odd perspective. Over here, to do their jobs properly all politicians must read the equivalent of war and peace, every three days, while carrying out their own research on each and still finding time to meet with the people living in their constituencies and act on their concerns.
This, inevitably, means that no politician does their job properly, every politician has an excuse when caught neglecting their duties and no politician has an incentive to try to do things properly. But those in charge of the system say they aren’t going to change it just so politicians can be lazy.
Back and forth and back and forth and while nobody has to accept responsibility everyone inside the government system is happy.