The following is cross-posted at www.fiscalaccountability.org:
As Democrat negotiators continued to hash out the details relating to their unfinished legislative business for 2009 on Tuesday, House leaders said that they are hoping to wrap up the yet-to-be-filed bills on Wednesday. This rushed timeline once again stands in stark contrast to Speaker Pelosi’s professed dedication to transparency and accountability.
The Speaker once claimed that her leadership would create the “most honest, most open, and most ethical Congress in history,” and even made an express promise to post the final language of the healthcare bill online for a full 72 hours. While allowing slightly more time for public review, she still failed to deliver on that promise.
Says Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform:
Democrat lawmakers are busy attaching cars to the last train leaving the station – the final spending bill, or now bills as they seem to have decided to split them for political reasons – but it looks like it will be a ghost train. We’ve heard quite a bit about what the package(s) might look like, but nobody has seen it or them yet. Nonetheless, they are hell-bent on getting their remaining agenda rushed through and then head out of town for the holidays.
A recent Rasmussen poll has shown that 83 percent of Americans want Congress to post bills online before they are voted on, and of these 83 percent, 64 percent think that bills should be available to the public two weeks or more before Congress votes. Only four percent think three days before a congressional vote is soon enough.
Norquist continues:
Congressional leaders are clearly defying the will of the people. Especially when bills stand to affect the livelihood of all Americans, as these bills they have cobbled together behind closed doors certainly will – it is all the more important that taxpayers have an opportunity to provide their input. This hasty process only goes to show that Congressional leaders are willing to talk the talk when it is politically expedient, but are unwilling to walk the walk if they feel it might slow down or even derail their misguided priorities.
Click here for the press release.