Congress' Shenanigans Double In 20-Years

Mark Tapscott shows us a photo of the 2007 Congress’ 15-inch thick “omnibus spending bill”, that’s 3500-pages, combining eleven regular appropriations bills in one, including burying over 9400 earmarks (that’s pork for the home folk or special interests, to help congressmen and senators get re-elected, paid for by taxpayers). And, our legislators are expected to vote on it within a day.

If any of our legislators can read that fast, it’ll be like the old joke about the Evelyn Wood’s speed-reading graduate asked what War and Peace is about. The reply: something about Russia.

In other words, what the heck are our congressmen and senators getting paid to do, aside from getting themselves re-elected without any responsibility for producing anything of value, not to mention care for our nation’s well-being.

In 1988, President Reagan stood before the entire Congress and called them on their similar shenanigan. Look at the photo. Reagan’s hand is spread about 8-inches to encompass the, what he called, “behemoth” sent to him at Christmas by the 1987 Congress.

(Photo: Reagan Presidential Library)

In other words, the Congress’ shenanigan in 2007 has doubled in size over 1987’s, which pretty well sums up the dimension of the deeper-and-deeper hole that Congress is digging us into.

FYI, below are Reagan’s words to the Congress at the 1988 State of the Union speech at which the above photo was taken.

Let’s hope President Bush does similar next month at his State of the Union speech to Congress. In the meantime, Bush better work-out in the weight room to gain the strength to lift the latest outrage.

ADDRESS BEFORE A JOINT SESSION OF CONGRESS ON THE STATE OF THE UNION January 25, 1988 full text

Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, I will say to you tonight what I have said before - and will continue to say: The budget process has broken down; it needs a drastic overhaul. With each ensuing year, the spectacle before the American people is the same as it was this Christmas - budget deadlines delayed or missed completely, monstrous continuing resolutions that pack hundreds of billions of dollars worth of spending into one bill - and a federal government on the brink of default.

I know I'm echoing what you here in the Congress have said because you suffered so directly - but let's recall that in seven years, of 91 appropriations bills scheduled to arrive on my desk by a certain date, only 10 made it on time. Last year, of the 13 appropriations bills due by October 1st, none of them made it. Instead, we had four continuing resolutions lasting 41 days, then 36 days, and two days, and three days, respectively. And then, along came these behemoths. This is the conference report - 1,053 page report weighing 14 pounds. Then this - a reconciliation bill six months late, that was 1,186 pages long, weighing 15 pounds; and the long-term continuing resolution - this one was two months late and it's 1,057 pages long, weighing 14 pounds. That was a total of 43 pounds of paper and ink. You had three hours - yes, three hours - to consider each, and it took 300 people at my Office of Management and Budget just to read the bill so the government wouldn't shut down. Congress shouldn't send another one of these. No and if you do, I will not sign it.