Free-falling into disaster

In the aftermath of 9/11 Congress passed the ill-named Patriot Act that took away some of our basic rights in the interest of security. Now that there has been a great deal of controversy over the wisdom of this, it is now widely conceded by virtually everyone that the complicated bill was passed without anyone actually having had time to read it (this assumes that anyone might have actually been motivated to read it). The recently passed enormous budget bill, which includes billions of dollars in unadulterated “pork” is also said to have been passed without anyone having time to read it. It apparently adds to the Patriot Act in such a way as to further erode civil liberties (but, of course, if no one read it, how would anyone know).

The fact that our elected officials are passing bills without reading them is duly reported and simply accepted as the way things work. EXCUSE ME! What in the hell are our elected officials doing passing bills that affect everyone without bothering to even read them? This is one of the most outrageous things about our government I have ever heard of! How dare they behave in such a totally irresponsible and stupid manner? As far as I am concerned any Congressperson or Senator who votes for a bill they haven’t even bothered to read should be immediately impeached. So what’s the problem? They don’t spend enough time on the job to read anything? They are too busy fund raising to bother about minor matters like reading the bills they are about to pass? They are so remiss in their duties they can't get the bills ready until the very last minute? Or are they just afraid someone might actually read them and find out just how atrociously they are ripping us off? That this unbelievable negligence occurs over and over again is nothing less than a slap in the face to the electorate. Is this what we elect them for? What we expect of them? What they are supposed to be doing?

I simply cannot understand how the media can just casually inform us that no one reads the bills before they vote on them and doesn’t even question this procedure. This does not seem to be a partisan issue. Neither Democrats or Republicans read the damn things. And if anyone ever does read one of them it’s always so long after the fact that it doesn’t seem to matter. The whole business is disgusting. It is more than disgusting, it is criminal. I suggest that everyone write to their Congressperson or Senator and tell them in no uncertain terms that if they vote on a bill without having read it they will have no chance whatsoever of being re-elected. Of course this would only work if enough citizens were aware that it was happening or cared enough to bother about it. Fat chance of that in the contemporary United States of America. As long as gays and lesbians can’t marry and people are forced to have children they don’t want everything will be hunky-dory. Anyone remember hunky-dory? Our country is free-falling into the disaster zone. Does anyone care?