In our 51st episode of the Madness Chronicles, we look at the insanity of the Congressional spending process. Remember that insanity is a state of mental illness, serious, extremely foolish behavior, and a form of frenzied or chaotic activity. Let’s look at some really crazy things in Congress today where they don’t even know what they’re voting on.
In December, the House released a 5,593-page COVID relief bill and told House members they had two hours to read it before voting. If you read at 1 page per minute and never take a break, it would take more than 90 hours to read the bill. That doesn’t count taking notes and understanding what you read.
In 2011, the average book had 473 pages. In the latest numbers from 2017, the page count of the average book is 267 pages. Consider the “incentive” law above. To reiterate, it’s 5,593 pages, which would be letter size pages, not book size. For discussion, if the stimulus bill were put into the average book, there would be 21 books.
So, fellow citizens, ask for a copy before they vote to saddle our great-grandchildren with a $1.4 trillion burden. Here they come with a box of books that would fill five of your children’s backpacks. Give them a quick read. It would be like going to your mechanic about a car problem and he hands you a 50 page list of things that need to be done. He says, look at this; you have 5 minutes and the price is 100 thousand dollars on the last page. These are the people we the people elected.
The appropriations provision of Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution clearly calls for and requires transparency. We live in the age of the Internet; everything is available to anyone with a computer and a little knowledge of where to look. That’s all but the ruling class happenings we’ve allowed to take over Washington.
Our original Constitution, written by brilliant men, was captured in just 4 pages. Even with the amendments it is just a pamphlet. Today the men and women we have in Congress who are not worthy to edit the works of Washington, Jefferson and Franklin want to “cancel” them. They want to destroy their history while driving our once prosperous republic off the face of the earth.
Senator Rand Paul, one of perhaps two congressmen today who deserve the name, had this to say: “Too often in Congress, legislation is pushed through without hearings, amendments, or debate. If we are to be accountable to the American people, we must pay close attention to legislation, which we will accept.”
The year 2020 will go down in history as the year our republic died. Americans are too busy, too uneducated in the Constitution and the difference between a republic and a democracy to care. We’re content to express our outrage at Colin Kapernaek and his destruction of the NFL, but we can’t wait until next Sunday to watch them play in empty stands with crowd noise. don’t forget your mask. Mucking Fadness at its finest.
May we wake up from this madness before it is too late. I wish you good health and until next time, have fun, enjoy life and watch out for the craziness among us. It’s 2020; Look around; it’s outrageous.
