kapitol keystone kops
The mad midnight run & tumble, smash & grab that ended the secretive process which produced the House version of the “tax reform” bill, resembled a Mack Sennet slapstick routine.
Their haste precluded the Republicans from actually reading the whole 500+ page bill, forcing them to skip ahead to the naughty bits if they read any of it at all. Democrats were not shown the bill, developed by Republicans alone behind locked doors, until the floor vote was due. Some of the legislation that passed was just penciled in at the last minute, barely legibly, at the margins. What a spectacle!
If they had read it, would members of the House have been able to see past their greed to notice that they had overstepped the bounds, not only of ethics, but also of Senate rules? Perhaps, though the glare of avarice can be blinding. The Senators' formalized sense of decency, recorded when cooler heads prevailed, made them strike a few of the most egregious House add-ons while appending a few of their own, forcing the bill back to the House for a re-vote after they had lavishly celebrated its 'final passage'. Nobody seemed particularly embarrassed.
Decorum was better in the Senate, but not the politics. The country’s biggest redistribution of wealth from the working class to the wealthy plutocratic elite, plus a depth charge to sink Obamacare and an invitation for private industry to despoil the Alaskan wilderness and the Atlantic continental shelf, were all rolled into a single bill, and passed on a party line vote. It has a built-in timer so we won’t feel the crunch until after the 2018 mid-term elections; the middle class benefits have a self-destruct mechanism which automatically blows them up after eight years, while the corporate provisions go on forever.
The funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which pays for the essential care for children from families of low or modest income, ran out in the fall. It didn't get any from this bill. either. Sorry, Kids. Daddy Warbucks needs your dough.
So here they are, a bit winded but proud, still in their battle regalia, ready for a team photo followed by a victory lap. Huzzah.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
kapitol keystone kops
The mad midnight run & tumble, smash & grab that ended the secretive process which produced the House version of the “tax reform” bill, resembled a Mack Sennet slapstick routine.
Their haste precluded the Republicans from actually reading the whole 500+ page bill, forcing them to skip ahead to the naughty bits if they read any of it at all. Democrats were not shown the bill, developed by Republicans alone behind locked doors, until the floor vote was due. Some of the legislation that passed was just penciled in at the last minute, barely legibly, at the margins. What a spectacle!
If they had read it, would members of the House have been able to see past their greed to notice that they had overstepped the bounds, not only of ethics, but also of Senate rules? Perhaps, though the glare of avarice can be blinding. The Senators' formalized sense of decency, recorded when cooler heads prevailed, made them strike a few of the most egregious House add-ons while appending a few of their own, forcing the bill back to the House for a re-vote after they had lavishly celebrated its 'final passage'. Nobody seemed particularly embarrassed.
Decorum was better in the Senate, but not the politics. The country’s biggest redistribution of wealth from the working class to the wealthy plutocratic elite, plus a depth charge to sink Obamacare and an invitation for private industry to despoil the Alaskan wilderness and the Atlantic continental shelf, were all rolled into a single bill, and passed on a party line vote. It has a built-in timer so we won’t feel the crunch until after the 2018 mid-term elections; the middle class benefits have a self-destruct mechanism which automatically blows them up after eight years, while the corporate provisions go on forever.
The funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which pays for the essential care for children from families of low or modest income, ran out in the fall. It didn't get any from this bill. either. Sorry, Kids. Daddy Warbucks needs your dough.
So here they are, a bit winded but proud, still in their battle regalia, ready for a team photo followed by a victory lap. Huzzah.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!