Comments on y-intercept blog: Comprehensive Reform is the Problem

If the Congress and administration were committed ...

2008-05-22T15:03:00.000-06:00

If the Congress and administration were committed to bare bills, they could pass.

Politicians would resist because they worry about the press reporting vote counts.

Although, if the bills just had a number reached after days of compromise, then would be difficult for the press to say if a Congressman was being progressive or conservative with their vote.

IMHO, the primary block to the deliberative approach was enforcement. With a will to enforce the laws in place, Congress is now able to deal strictly with numbers.

A bare guest worker bill can't pass because the wo...

2008-05-12T08:29:00.000-06:00

A bare guest worker bill can't pass because the workers' rights advocates and nativists won't allow it.

A bare amnesty bill can't pass because the law-and-order types won't allow it.

A bare enforcement bill can't pass because big business won't allow it.

That's why they try balancing a comprehensive bill.

Sad, but true, The politically minded spend their ...

2008-05-11T00:08:00.001-06:00

Sad, but true, The politically minded spend their days trying to expand their power base, but fail to do the jobs given them.

Congress doesn't like deliberative efforts. It pr...

2008-05-10T15:55:00.000-06:00

Congress doesn't like deliberative efforts. It prefers to put stuff on auto pilot (as most spending increases are) and to do the comprehensive reform thing.

If Congress were forced to deal with matters on an annual deliberative basis, they claim, it would be forever bogged down in "menial" legislation, they complain. Nothing "important" would ever get done, they complain. I'm not exactly sure that today's methodology is so great at getting anything important done.

If Congress were forced to deal with matters deliberatively, it would necessarily limit the scope of what Congress does. To me, that sounds like a good thing.