02-14-2009, 08:14 PM
Quote:No one read the final bill, which might have language stripped, or language added. The point is that the people who voted for it didn't actually know what it contained. Which means that if you are a D now, you don't really need to think but merely vote the party line. I mean, its only the largest spending bill, ever. So why would you bother reading it.
It would also be nice if everyone read everything before they voted on it, but this has not been true of American government since Washington was president, and probably not even then. I think most Democrats are assuming that the bill they voted for was what it appeared to be: the same package they've been discussing all along, with some t's crossed and i's dotted, and a few of the more vulnerable programs cut out to satisfy three Republican votes (Snowe, Specter, and Collins, no big surprises there). I think they're also more than happy to stick it to the Republicans, who have been spending the last few weeks with their fingers in their ears singing a happy song about fluffy pink tax cuts and trying desperately to ignore the fact that they haven't got a shred of credibility left, rather than facing up to reality and making a compromise with a President so eager to compromise he is giving Neville Chamberlain a run for his money.
-Jester