The House Votes to Save "Innocent Trees": But They Promised They Were Going to Read the Bills

"Just voted to give a Pardon to Thousands of innocent trees!!!" Freshman Congressman Billy Long tweeted yesterday. Playing hooky from Constitution reading day on the House floor obviously led to his confusion about pardoning power in the federal government. What he is talking about is the first cut to the budget on record with the new 112th Congress. (Not only does Congressman Long need a remedial Constitution class, he also needs a review on common nouns. Greenwood Laboratory Schools must be so proud of this graduate!)

As the national debt quickly approaches its debt ceiling limit of $14.3 trillion and some change, the new GOP House, elected with the promise of they were going to be serious about cutting debt, took time out of cutting bigger items in the federal leviathan to cut a minimal amount of spending. Yeah, it may be a start, but there is so much more they could be doing and time is ticking quickly as the national debt quickly approaches the debt ceiling.

The House voted 399-0 to erase old House rules that required each Congressman to receive a printed paper copy of every bill introduced to the House floor. Whoa, wait a minute! While this may sound good, it really amounts to nothing more than meaningless pathos.

First of all, didn't many of these Congressmen promise us they were going to start reading the bills before they voted on them? Not printing the bills presents new reasons why your Congressman will be less likely to read a bill.

Have you ever tried to read a long document on a computer screen? It's hard on the eyes, so many of these same Congressmen and their staff will turn to staff members and their laser printers to print the bills simply because at many of their ages, computer monitors are hard on the eyes.

Of course, they could use technology like the Kindle or the Nook to print bills, but as we know from politicians like George H.W. Bush, some of the old school politicians down't do well with technology. Remember, Bush was amazed that lasers could scan bar codes at stores like Walmart and tally up the total of your purchase.

So does't this bill really seem quite meaningless and actually produces more excuses for Congressman not to read bills? That seems quite likely to me.

A note to the Republicans in Congress, get to cutting the budget, and do it quickly.