same old election year stuff

What I am about to rant about is not new, nor really an emergency, but it bears witness to my point about 'precision democracy'. The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill last night that encompassed many items from various wish-lists, and then boldly hit the highways and airports so as not to be called on, (in person anyway), to comment on the bill. the bill contained all manner of 'extensions' of tax credits, cuts and abatements, as well as a much needed raise in the federal minimum wage. This bill, a product of the party in power, now puts the opposition party in a position of having to thumb their noses at their constituency in order to block 'welfare for the rich and for big business', or acquiese to those interests in order to promote the welfare of the working poor.

Helluva choice.

I predict a lot of hullaballoo before the bill passes, as nobody wants to p*ss off a campaign contributor, but nobody wants to look like a whore either, (they worry about that at the oddest times).

Wait and see what happens next.


update 1:

the Senate Democrats held together and managed to defeat this bill today, although it may be voted on again this fall. Like I said, a helluva choice, but I have to think that it is the right one.

update 2:

not that it matters any more than anything else, but I read an interesting factoid about this bill:

the bill ran to a length of 900 typed pages!!!

see it here.

as I sit and type about this stuff, I am arguing about an idea or notion that can be expressed in one or two paragraphs, tops. any new law that runs 900 pages is altogether to bloated and loaded with small and large "gotcha's" and "gimme's", (aside from the ones that we know about), that, not only should it die, the author should be hung with a rope made from the recycled paper in the 900 page bill.....