How Congress Works

[kalm]

Interesting article on freshman orientation for Democratic congressman.

This explains things like not even reading the bills they vote on or even sometimes sponsor, the demanding nature and tediousness of their work, and many of the head scratching contradictions seen on a daily basis. And oh yes, Republicans are pretty much the same. They all HAVE to be...


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/0 ... 27291.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Ivytalk]

I enjoyed it, although I didn't find it too surprising. What is "recharge time"? Drinking heavily?

[TwinTownBisonFan]

Wow do they lowball call time. Especially in a swing district. When you are in-district, you tend to do less call time... and tend to do more clutch fundraisers (coffees and the like).

Also, bemoan it if you'd like, but if they didn't have to do calltime it's not like they'd be sitting in their office in Longworth pouring over every word of every bill.

[kalm]

Wow do they lowball call time. Especially in a swing district. When you are in-district, you tend to do less call time... and tend to do more clutch fundraisers (coffees and the like).

Also, bemoan it if you'd like, but if they didn't have to do calltime it's not like they'd be sitting in their office in Longworth pouring over every word of every bill.

Aka...their job.

Not only do we need less $ in politics, we need less bills...

[Ivytalk]

Wow do they lowball call time. Especially in a swing district. When you are in-district, you tend to do less call time... and tend to do more clutch fundraisers (coffees and the like).

Also, bemoan it if you'd like, but if they didn't have to do calltime it's not like they'd be sitting in their office in Longworth pouring over every word of every bill.

Aka...their job.

Not only do we need less $ in politics, we need less bills...

Now THAT'S something we can agree on!

[TwinTownBisonFan]

Also, this:

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/20 ... ng-the-ban

The earmark ban is bad for business. Nothing gets done without the grease on the wheels.

[TwinTownBisonFan]

Wow do they lowball call time. Especially in a swing district. When you are in-district, you tend to do less call time... and tend to do more clutch fundraisers (coffees and the like).

Also, bemoan it if you'd like, but if they didn't have to do calltime it's not like they'd be sitting in their office in Longworth pouring over every word of every bill.

Aka...their job.

Not only do we need less $ in politics, we need less bills...

That's NOT their job. That is the job of their assistants. Particularly, their Legislative Directors are tasked with reading the bills. For goodness sake, there are thousands of bills proposed every year... the LD and their interns read the legislation and provide relevant summaries.

[Ivytalk]

Aka...their job.

Not only do we need less $ in politics, we need less bills...

That's NOT their job. That is the job of their assistants. Particularly, their Legislative Directors are tasked with reading the bills. For goodness sake, there are thousands of bills proposed every year... the LD and their interns read the legislation and provide relevant summaries.

Great, TTBF. Government by executive summary. Just what America needs! The devil is always in the details. Plus, what do interns grow up to be? Either whores, lobbyists, or Congressmen who do call time.

[AZGrizFan]

Aka...their job.

Not only do we need less $ in politics, we need less bills...

That's NOT their job. That is the job of their assistants. Particularly, their Legislative Directors are tasked with reading the bills. For goodness sake, there are thousands of bills proposed every year... the LD and their interns read the legislation and provide relevant summaries.

Interesting to sit and watch you defend this goat rope of a process.

[YoUDeeMan]

That's NOT their job. That is the job of their assistants. Particularly, their Legislative Directors are tasked with reading the bills. For goodness sake, there are thousands of bills proposed every year... the LD and their interns read the legislation and provide relevant summaries.

Pass fewer bills and stop the add-on pork barrel stuff and then our Congressmen could read the bills. In other words, they could do their job.

[kalm]

Hey layoff TTBF. He's simply defending his industry. Without this "process" there'd be less need for campaign ops and he'd have to find a real job.

[ASUG8]

Interesting article on freshman orientation for Democratic congressman.

This explains things like not even reading the bills they vote on or even sometimes sponsor, the demanding nature and tediousness of their work, and many of the head scratching contradictions seen on a daily basis. And oh yes, Republicans are pretty much the same. They all HAVE to be...


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/0 ... 27291.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That's a really depressing article and a scathing indictment on all things inside the beltway. We're screwed.

[BDKJMU]

Aka...their job.

Not only do we need less $ in politics, we need less bills...

That's NOT their job. That is the job of their assistants. Particularly, their Legislative Directors are tasked with reading the bills. For goodness sake, there are thousands of bills proposed every year... the LD and their interns read the legislation and provide relevant summaries.

Well then if they had to read every bill in its entirety they'd have to prioritize where they'd only be voting on at most a couple hundred bills every year. And that would be a good thing- less BS coming out of Congress.

[BDKJMU]

That's NOT their job. That is the job of their assistants. Particularly, their Legislative Directors are tasked with reading the bills. For goodness sake, there are thousands of bills proposed every year... the LD and their interns read the legislation and provide relevant summaries.

Pass fewer bills and stop the add-on pork barrel stuff and then our Congressmen could read the bills. In other words, they could do their job.

Exactly.

[kalm]

That's NOT their job. That is the job of their assistants. Particularly, their Legislative Directors are tasked with reading the bills. For goodness sake, there are thousands of bills proposed every year... the LD and their interns read the legislation and provide relevant summaries.

Well then if they had to read every bill in its entirety they'd have to prioritize where they'd only be voting on at most a couple hundred bills every year. And that would be a good thing- less BS coming out of Congress.

Rare moment of agreement for Kalm and BDKJMU!

[BDKJMU]

Well then if they had to read every bill in its entirety they'd have to prioritize where they'd only be voting on at most a couple hundred bills every year. And that would be a good thing- less BS coming out of Congress.

Rare moment of agreement for Kalm and BDKJMU!

Well, you'd think most conks and donks would agree on this. Then why does it seem impossible to get done?

[kalm]

Rare moment of agreement for Kalm and BDKJMU!

Well, you'd think most conks and donks would agree on this. Then why does it seem impossible to get done?

$

[HI54UNI]

Reading this makes it hard not to wish that all of them would die via a stretched neck.

[SuperHornet]

Interesting article on freshman orientation for Democratic congressman.

So there's only one this time around?

[TwinTownBisonFan]

That's NOT their job. That is the job of their assistants. Particularly, their Legislative Directors are tasked with reading the bills. For goodness sake, there are thousands of bills proposed every year... the LD and their interns read the legislation and provide relevant summaries.

Pass fewer bills and stop the add-on pork barrel stuff and then our Congressmen could read the bills. In other words, they could do their job.

They banned the earmarks... it's made it worse. The way work gets done in Washington is with earmarks greasing the tracks.

You guys can kvetch all you want - passing laws is like making sausage - always has been, always will be.

[TwinTownBisonFan]

That's NOT their job. That is the job of their assistants. Particularly, their Legislative Directors are tasked with reading the bills. For goodness sake, there are thousands of bills proposed every year... the LD and their interns read the legislation and provide relevant summaries.

Interesting to sit and watch you defend this goat rope of a process.

The process doesn't work like it does in Schoolhouse Rock. Here in reality there are 435 Congressmen and 100 Senators and no end of citizens (whether organized in groups or individuals) petitioning their government. Thousands and thousands of reports are written, thousands more briefs, and hundreds and hundreds of bills proposed. That's the way it works running a global superpower in the 21st century... you don't get to have an amateur legislature passing laws like we're some condo association that can have a meeting once a quarter and write a few minor bills.

[BDKJMU]

Pass fewer bills and stop the add-on pork barrel stuff and then our Congressmen could read the bills. In other words, they could do their job.

They banned the earmarks... it's made it worse. The way work gets done in Washington is with earmarks greasing the tracks.

You guys can kvetch all you want - passing laws is like making sausage - always has been, always will be.

There's only one law or bill they need to pass every year, and that's a budget, and they can't even seem to get that done.

[BDKJMU]

Term limits would at least partially solve this problem of spending more time fundraising and campaigning than doing actual work that they were sent there to do. 6 yrs for the Senate- that would mean no re election campaigns for senators. 6-8 years for the House. They could serve their time, then get the f**k out out of their beltway bubble back to reality in the real world with a real job.

[SuperHornet]

Rule #1: Nancy, Barbara, and Dianne do whatever they want.

Rule #2: If you don't like that, see Rule #1.

Result: The Congress DOESN'T work....

[dbackjon]

They banned the earmarks... it's made it worse. The way work gets done in Washington is with earmarks greasing the tracks.

You guys can kvetch all you want - passing laws is like making sausage - always has been, always will be.

There's only one law or bill they need to pass every year, and that's a budget, and they can't even seem to get that done.

You are really clueless on what it takes to run a country