The first tea party to protest taxation without representation occurred on Dec. 16, 1773. We’ve come full circle and are now almost back where we started.
We are positioned to do to ourselves what no other nation could have done to us militarily or otherwise.
Congress recently passed a $1.2 trillion bill that members didn’t even have time to read. On June 26, the House of Representatives passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. This bill contained 1,200 pages before another 300 pages were added at 3 a.m. the day of the vote. Representatives did not have time to read, analyze, debate and understand the future ramifications of this legislation before being forced to vote.
In the real world, this type of behavior is called “unconscionable, irresponsible and negligent.”
What if a private company acted in this manner and employees cried that the company was taking money out of their paychecks for things they didn’t want? And what if that company's leaders had the power to exempt themselves from any consequences and set themselves up for a worry-free life?
Ridiculous? No. Our elected representatives are in the process of setting up this company as our government, and we are the suckers that will be paying the bills. You won’t see any initiative by our elected representatives to quickly move for live media coverage for an untold number of hearings to decry their despicable representation for us. What a shame!
In 20-20 hindsight, nothing is so much of an emergency that Congress cannot take time to read bills, analyze their impact – both now and in the future – and debate from an informed, transparent position. But there is a reason these bills have not been transparent and debated from fact: the political fat cats in Washington know that Americans would not put up with their nonsense.
The Washington legislative approach will have significant ramifications on every Kentuckian. It will negatively impact our commonwealth, its city and county governments and employers.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we all knew those ramifications and had elected officials in Frankfort and Washington communicating with us and looking out for our interests – not theirs?
Their approach may be great politics, but it's bad policy administered with no integrity. It’s time to draw the line in the sand and demand true policy transparency, analysis and debate through responsible representation.
5 comments:
Right on! The arrogance of our legislators is out of control. Not even knowing what they are voting on clearly shows they have no respect for us or our tax dollars. Time to unite and change this.
It is no wonder so many people are totally frustrated and think it doesn't matter if they contact their congressman. It is time to hold these people accountable for their actions. They are clearly susceptable to pressure to do anything but the right thing. Wouldn't it be wonderful if they did their homework and had the courage to make their own informed decisions for the best interests of their constituents? Wouldn't it be wonderful if they had the courage to get together and tell leadership no vote until all aspects of a bill are understood, analyzed, and debated? Wouldn't it be wonderful if they put the interests of the US ahead of party and self. They are wasting our money in billion and trillion dollar chunks. This madness must be stopped.
Well said. The reason why this behavior is the status quo in Frankfort and in Washington D.C. is because we have let it happen. It is time for us to develop some character. Let's learn the issues. Let's get involved. Let's communicate with these turkeys and vote them out of office if they won't act like responsible adults.
The founding fathers made tremendous sacrifices to form this country. Our military personal have made and continue to make sacrifices to protect this country. But our politicians seem determined to tear this country down and unravel the fundamental principles that have made the USA the greatest country in the world. If we are not careful the politicians will bring this country to its knees - economically, militarily, over-burdensome government, loss of liberties, and the destruction of the private enterprise system - without a shot being fired. Only cowards stifle debate, hide last minute provisions in bills, blame others for everything, have no respect for our constitution, and then stand in front of the cameras and blatantly lie. There needs to be consequences for these type behaviors. What is at stake is too important to remain complacent and just let it happen.
This is right on, but now the question becomes, what can we do about it? We've tried throwing tea--or at least tea bags--at our legislators. Maybe throwing the bums out in 2010 will wake them up.
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