That’s what conference committees are for - the full bodies of both houses delegate that responsibility to a group small enough to actually get the work done.
Indeed. A small committee is necessary in order to negotiate between the chambers, just as small committees are needed to do the investigatory work that goes into writing a bill. But the final voting is supposed to be an informed decision. We elect our representatives to act for us, not to elect a second layer of representatives to do the real governing.
As I said in my post, I think the time from conference report to final bill is less important than the time spent in the run-up to each side’s initial votes, since the conference report usually makes changes at the edges. But that doesn’t mean Sateryn76 doesn’t raise a generally legitimate concern.
Well it is clear that many Republicans only have read the Limbaugh Talking Points as they continue to harp on non-existant earmarks for a San Francisco mouse and a “levitating train” from Disneyland to Vegas.
This is illustrative:Earlier this month, New Orleans’s new congressman Joseph Cao (R) stated that he would vote for the economic recovery package. “I believe that more likely than not, I will vote for it because the 2nd Congressional District needs a stimulus package,” he said. Even on the day of the vote, Cao was telling reporters that he was “leaning yes.”
In the end, however, Cao succumbed to GOP arm-twisting and voted against the package. The Republican party’s chief deputy whip stood near the freshman lawmaker during the entire vote, and Cao admitted that the leaders had applied some “pressure” on him to vote no, so that they could boast 100 percent opposition from their party.
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A lot of those meetings are for show only. Remember the key thing that put Obama over Hillary was Hillary voted for the war in Iraq. If Obama didn’t have this to hammer home at her the result could’ve been very different.
So Obama is more conscious of doing what looks right, that way he can say “I didn’t do it. Don’t blame me.”