On Jun 29, 1:55 am, Paul Wharton <
paulwhar...@comcast.net> wrote:
> After all, if the U.S. Congress is
> forced to vote for bills without even being able to read them ahead of
> time, that essentially nullifies Congressional powers.
Bzzt! Try again. Nobody held a gun to their head, they chose to go
along. Politicians are basically dishonest, any of them could have
said that they would not vote for anything that they couldn't read.
Any of them could have made a public announcement for printing in the
Congressional Record saying it was wrong.
But none of them did anything to show opposition. They went right
along with everything.
A half dozen members could have froze everything and forced it to be
made public. A motion to adjourn is always in order, is privileged
and cannot be tabled. One of them, when the bill that they weren't
allowed to read came on the floor, could have moved to adjourn,
another could have seconded, and demanded a vote, then when the
Speaker said the motion failed, asked for a vote, which would require
every member to come back to the floor. And if not enough showed up,
suggest an absence of quorum. And then after the first motion to
adjourn fails, someone else can suggest an absence of quorum, which
drags everyone back. Then move to adjourn again. Tie them up in
knots until they legitimately release a readable bill and refuse to
allow that sort of garbage to continue.
I mean, I'm not even that familiar with parliamentary procedure or
Robert's Rules of Order but I know a few things.