by Scott Ott
(2004-11-24) -- A secret provision in the proposed 3,600-page omnibus spending bill for 2005 would require members of Congress to actually read the text of legislation before voting.
Buried on page 1,776 of the bill, the hidden clause sparked outrage from both sides of the aisle after it was discovered by an employee of the Congressional printing service.
"This sneak-and-peek provision is a violation of our fundamental rights as legislators," said one unnamed Republican Senator. "If you require lawmakers to actually read the text of bills, then they would lose plausible deniability and become accountable for their votes. This would shake the foundations of our constitutional republic."
House minority leader Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, joined the bipartisan chorus of opposition to the secret measure.
"If we actually read these bills, then we would know the specifics about billions of dollars of pork barrel projects for all of our districts," she said. "And of course some unnamed Congressman would start leaking this to the media and, before you know it, Americans would start believing that the federal budget is just an elaborate scheme to defraud taxpayers of their hard-earned money in order to fund local projects that local citizens have already decided aren't worth the money. Our whole system of power...or rather, of democracy, would collapse."
President George Bush, when asked what he thought of the hidden provision, said, "I think every American should learn to read no later than his third term in Congress. I believe in accountability. We need to test our elected officials for reading comprehension and put an end to the soft bigotry of low expectations."
Donate | More Satire | Printer-Friendly |
Editor's Picks
