Last fall (is that when it was?) when Congress rushed some multi-billion “package” through and President Bush signed it, I wondered how they could put their signatures and votes to something they had not read carefully and studied thoroughly.
I marveled at such reckless irresponsibility.
Now I see that such an approach must be the norm.
Yet voters continue to send them back to keep doing such things.
Amazing.
I guess.
But do I do the same type thing as the politicians do? Perhaps more than I realize.
But before further introspection, the “news”:
| Democratic Senator Predicts None of His Colleagues ‘Will Have the Chance’ to Read Final Stimulus Bill Before Vote
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) predicted on Thursday that none of his Senate colleagues would “have the chance” to read the entire final version of the $790-billion stimulus bill before the bill comes up for a final vote in Congress. “No, I don’t think anyone will have the chance,” Lautenberg told CNSNews.com. The final bill, crafted by a House-Senate conference committee, was posted on the Website of the House Appropriations Committe [sic] late Thurday in two PDF files. |
(I put the sic there. Did I use it correctly, oh ye grammarians?)
Reckless irresponsibility aside (since I already addressed it), they posted the final bill as two PDF files?! Two! 😯
| We? Hiding Something? Huh? You say what?
Democratic staffers released the final version of the stimulus bill at about 11 pm last night after delaying the release for hours to put it into a format which people cannot “search” on their home computers. Instead of publishing the bill as a regular internet document — which people can search by “key words” and otherwise, the Dems took hours to convert the final bill from the regular searchable format into “pdf” files, which can be read but not searched. |
That’s neither reckless nor irresponsible. 🙁
Oh, and here’s the last paragraph from the first story I quoted above:
| The bill is expected to land on President Obama’s desk no later than Monday, and the president is expected to sign it into law–whether the nation’s lawmakers have read it or not. |
But what about whether or not he has read it?
Mr. President, sí se puede! Read it all. Carefully. Thoroughly. Responsibly. For the sake of your two daughters. At least. Then go before a joint session of Congress and tell them they must do the same. Then lead them in a rousing rendition of “Yes, we can!”
Change we can believe in.
Anyway, back to my top of the fold musings….
- How closely do I investigate the facts before I state an opinion or make a decision?
- Am I prone to use “I didn’t know” as an excuse…when I could have known?
- In those areas where I have been delegated with leadership responsibilities, do I exhibit arrogance, recklessness, secrecy, and irresponsibility?
Consider some wisdom that far exceeds my own:
“When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay” (Ecclesiastes 5:4,5).
“It is a snare to the man who devoureth that which is holy, and after vows to make enquiry” (Proverbs 20:25).
“When thou shalt vow a vow unto the LORD thy God, thou shalt not slack to pay it: for the LORD thy God will surely require it of thee; and it would be sin in thee. But if thou shalt forbear to vow, it shall be no sin in thee” (Deuteronomy 23:21,22).
Politicians almost inevitability will be politicians.
Shall I inevitably be a Christian?