It
has come to our attention time after time that the bulk of our Senators and
Congressional Reps have not read the bills on which they are voting.
How they vote comes down to what their party leadership tells them to do.
The
recent failed attempt to repeal Obamacare shows this problem for what it is. I
would bet that not even 50% of Republicans bothered to read the thousands of
pages involved in ACA. Democrats probably didn't fare much better here.
All
were deprived of the opportunity to read what they were voting on. Even at the
peak of the discussions, no one really knew the contents of the Republican
plan, because it was still being written.
Perhaps
there never was a "peak." With such lack of information, the whole
discussion was a low-point of American history. A form of demagoguery seemed to
be the code of the discussion from beginning to end -- perhaps unintentionally;
perhaps intentionally. Half-truths, misstatements and outright lies were the
rules of the day throughout the "discussions."
Thus;
a simple proposal for better government with less demagoguery:
The
Federal Government should be REQUIRED to establish and use its own "CONGRESSIONAL
FACT-CHECK" organization, parallel to GAO. Such organization
should employ no one who is not a speed reader; at hundreds of pages per hour
with comprehension levels well in excess of 80% to 90%. No bill, and no
amendment should be allowed on the floor of either HR or SENATE without a full
review from this group.
Congressional
Fact-Check would
compile a complete table-of-contents and index for each bill and amendment to
make it possible for Reps and Sens to check every statement/claim made by the
authors/signatories -- and all opposing statements -- to each bill/amendment
without having to rely on their party leadership.
This
would make it possible for discussions to be based on total disclosure rather
than verbal legerdemain.
All
statements -- public/private, in Sen/Rep chambers or in private/public hearings
-- SHOULD be accompanied by chapter-verse-and-line references so that all
involved in the discussions and the general public can check the actual facts
of the bills for themselves.
Until
this kind of thing occurs we will never achieve TRUE representative government.
ONLY THEN will we truly be able to hold lawmakers' feet to the fire and determine
if they are doing their jobs, and not just taking orders from someone different
from their constituents.