This Congress has broken a lot of ground, but for all the wrong reasons. Now it has another ridiculous notch to add to its belt: Congress is poised to pass a major piece of legislation without bothering to give it a name.
To recap, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told us that health care reform would have to pass before we could find out what’s in it. Then, for the first time since the modern budgetary process was enacted, the House decided not to pass a budget (avoiding one of its principle duties). Now, as the Cato Institute reports:
H.R. 1586 has adopted the name, the “______Act of____,” apparently because of the haste with which the Senate wanted to pass the bill last week.
The Senate’s substitute amendment on this $26 billion spending bill had a placeholder bill name, and it could not take time to replace the placeholder
What’s in the bill is even scarier than Congress’ flagrant laziness. It’s a $26.1 billion bailout for state governments, funded in part by $11 billion in tax hikes on U.S. companies that compete internationally. That piles on top of the $862 billion stimulus and a long list of massive deficit spending.
Have some suggestions for what the bill could be called? Feel free to post your ideas in the comments below.