Thursday, July 28, 2005
Say it clearly: This is lawlessness
(Thanks to Sam Rosenfeld at Tapped for the link to Waxman's letter
Cong. Henry Waxman notes that, once again, legislation has been altered after the text was circulated to conferees. Therefore, they believed they were voting on a given bill, but the House leadership-- presumably with collusion from the Senate leadership-- is pretending that their vote was for a different bill.
The last time this was done, language was inserted to allow congressional staff to go over your tax returns. I suppose they needed to check whether you were donating to the right sorts of charities or whether you needed advice on the matter. This time, $1.5 BILLION was simply handed over to oil and gas companies, one-third of it in direct spending, and all of it money that had never been appropriated.
Waxman unfortunately presents this as a procedural issue. Certainly it is that. So is the difference between hanging a man before and after a trial.
What this represents is a direct assault on the Constitutional powers of Congress to appropriate funds. Without the power to say what funds may or may not be spent, Congress has almost no power at all.
This is lawlessness.
Update. Democratic collusion came from the Congressman from GM (Dingell) and the Department of Energy's Senate satrap (Bingaman). If they represent you, you should let them know that you don't appreciate such constitutional infringements.
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