The Hardworking U.S. Senate. Not!
Jeff Dircksen writes at the National Taxpayers Union’s blog, Government Bytes, that the Senate's budget committee chairman is urging senators to avoid asking for recorded votes on pending amendments to the budget. Specifically, he writes:
“Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad has been on the floor today urging his colleagues not to ask for recorded votes on the 230 or so pending amendments to the Senate budget resolution. Conrad estimates that if every Senator insisted on a roll call vote that Senators would have to spend the next three days voting to get through all of the amendments. Instead, Conrad has asked that Senators accept voice votes or attempt to attach the amendment to some other piece of legislation.
“I'm sure that it's tough waiting on the Senate floor for someone to call your name and then wandering off to the cloakroom, but it is the budget of the United States after all. What's wrong with spending a little extra time -- or a couple of extra days -- working on it? Maybe it will give everyone a chance to read the whole thing.”
Don’t you just the like the ways that politicians have of avoiding accountability? Add a comment to the Government Byes post if you think it outrageous that members of the U.S. Senate can so easily avoid accountability.
And take a few minutes to call Virginia Senators Mark Warner and Jim Webb on Capitol Hill -- switchboard phone number (202) 224-3121. After all, if you can’t be accountable for $3.5 trillion, when can you be accountable?