The Senate’s bipartisan “Gang of 8” unveiled an 844-page immigration “reform” bill in April.
Do you think your Senators will read it? Your Representative?
What if they had to? What if every bill had to be read word-for-word by House clerks before a quorum (majority) in each chamber of Congress?
Wouldn’t we get…
- Shorter bills…
- Simpler bills…
- and, most importantly, FEWER bills?
You may borrow from or copy this letter…
You misrepresent your constituents when you pass bills without reading them.
That’s why DownsizeDC.org’s RTBA requires a full reading of each bill before a quorum in your chamber.
You might think that’s unrealistic, but you’d have it backwards.
YOUR BILLS are unrealistic. The 844-page Immigration bill (S. 744) is the latest example. Too many pages means more complexity and more problems, just like with previous huge bills ranging in size from a few hundred pages to more than 2,000…
* “No Child Left Behind” made education worse.
* The Medicare drug entitlement will add trillions to the federal debt.
* Obamacare is causing employers to drop coverage and doctors to retire early.
* Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank punish honest businesses with useless requirements and paperwork.What do those bills have in common?
* They were huge
* Congress didn’t read them before passing them
* They all try to solve problems through COERCION.I will interpret Congress’s refusal to do this in the following way . . .
* The institution you serve is un-reformable
* The institution you serve is criminal
* The Declaration of Independence suggests you should be replaced
END LETTER
You can send your letter using DownsizeDC.org’s Educate the Powerful System.
Also, you can see the list of bills, including their number of pages, that Congress passed in March here.
James Wilson is Policy Research Director of DownsizeDC.org.