Exercise your Constituent “Franking” Right
Can’t find any web reports but I heard a news report that the House has just passed the non-economic stimulus bill and the Senate was expected to act on it later today.
Do you support or oppose this bill? Let your voice be heard. Senatorial contact information below.
Senator Jack Reed: (202)224-4642. Website.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse: (202)224-2921. Website.
I already emailed our Senators. One thing I’ll say is Jack Reed is very good about getting back to people and stating his case. I’m curious if Sheldon will be equally attentive.
Our senators and reps are hardly worth the effort. Instead, I made a number of calls to the offices of Sens. Specter, Collins, and Snowe, though most of the time, their mailboxes were full (wonder why, hmm?).
Saying that members of congress do not have the capacity to review an 800 page bill is certainly an appeal to ignorance.
If we read things the way that we used to – individually – by candlelight – after walking uphill both ways five miles in the snow to get a book from the library – the argument might hold.
But the fact is either of these tools can be used to compare versions and text and sort out relevant information. :
Changes
Recovery
It is exceptionally misleading to tell the public that members of congress, with their massive information infrastructure investment and staffs are not able to sort through 800 pages of text.
“It is exceptionally misleading to tell the public that members of congress, with their massive information infrastructure investment and staffs are not able to sort through 800 pages of text.”
Robert, capability is irrelevant. Members of Congress do not deny that they have not read all 800 pages. And is any human, Congressman or staffer, capable of reading 800 pages in one night?
Further, why should anyone have to? Why couldn’t the bill be publicly posted for 72 hours, as President Obama promised he would do during the campaign, or 48 hours, as Speaker Pelosi promised?
Again, those speaking points about the difficulty of ‘reading’ are meant for the masses of people who do not. It is simply an appeal to ignorance that does not address the content of the bill.
It also implies that members of the Democratic party are better at comprehending and using information resources than Republicans – which I think is a grossly unfair generalization.