Speaker Pelosi and the Democratic congressional leadership have engaged in an all-out strategy to ram through Congress legislation designed to remake America without time for public debate or even for members of Congress to read the legislation they are voting on.
From the failed “economic stimulus” bill to the cap-and-trade energy tax to bailouts of the auto and financial industries to government-run healthcare legislation, Speaker Pelosi is refusing to give members of Congress and the public time to read the final versions of legislation – let alone debate it.
This “trust me, vote now and read it later” approach effectively turns Congress into a rubber stamp for President Obama’s policies and gives Speaker Pelosi and her fellow liberal lawmakers almost unlimited power.
That is why CCAGW has joined 182 members of Congress in fighting for vote on H. Res. 554, which would change the Rules of the U.S. House of Representatives to require Speaker Pelosi to post, without exception, all final versions of legislation on the Internet at least 72 hours before holding a vote.
Here is just one example of why this 72-hour review period is so important.
At approximately 2:45 a.m. on the day the House passed the wildly expensive cap-and-trade energy tax, the liberal leadership of the House mysteriously added a whopping 300-page amendment to the legislation. Congress had spent weeks crafting the bill, and this massive amendment contained new and radical provisions.
One of the worst of the wee-hours-of-the-morning provisions requires you to receive permission from the Environmental Protection Agency in order to sell your home.
Unbelievable, but true! The EPA will review the energy efficiency of your appliances, windows, roof, furnace, air conditioning, and walls to determine if you meet their standards for private homes. If they do not approve of your home, you will be required to make changes, regardless of the cost, before you can sell.
CCAGW is fighting tooth-and-nail to keep this outrageous, authoritarian provision out of the Senate version of cap-and-trade legislation, which is not expected to come up for a vote until next year.
However, we can prevent more radical policies like this EPA home-sale approval requirement RIGHT NOW by stopping Speaker Pelosi and her left-wing minions from being able to call for votes on legislation without time for members of Congress, the public, and policy experts like CCAGW to review the details of a bill.
Not surprisingly, Speaker Pelosi and the ultra-liberal House leadership are blocking vote on H. Res. 554 by bottling it up in the Rules Committee and refusing to let it come to the House floor.
The only way to force a vote on H. Res. 554 is for 218 members of Congress to sign what is known as a Discharge Petition requiring that the 72-hour rule change come to the House floor.
Concerned Taxpayer, as someone who has counted votes in Washington for decades, I can tell you that if this rule change is put to a vote on the House floor an overwhelming number of members of Congress will vote for it – because more than 80 percent of the American people support having all legislation posted on the Internet for 72 hours before a final vote.
Speaker Pelosi’s only chance to block the public and members of Congress from reading and discussing legislation before it becomes law is if she can stop the Discharge Petition from gaining 218 signatures.
As I send you this e-mail, 182 members of Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, have stepped forward to sign the Discharge Petition.
We need just 36 more.
And we have more than enough top targets whom we are heavily lobbying. For example, 24 Representatives co-sponsored vote on H. Res. 554 but have yet to sign the Discharge Petition due to pressure from Speaker Pelosi.
Concerned Taxpayer, we can win these 24 signatures and reach the 218 required, but we urgently need your help.
We must demonstrate in the most concrete manner possible that not only are Americans solidly behind the posting of all legislation on the Internet for at least 72 hours, but that taxpayers are willing to fight for this new rule.
That is why I need you to sign on to the very same Discharge Petition that we are urging members of Congress to sign. We will tabulate your signature, along with the tens of thousands of others, and publicize the results to the members of Congress whose support we are lobbying to secure.
Please, before you do anything else today, take a moment to sign on to the Discharge Petition for H. Res. 554.
Related Reading:
Beyond Kyoto - A New Global Climate Certificate System: Continuing Kyoto Commitsments or a Global 'Cap and Trade' Scheme for a Sustainable Climate Policy?This balanced analysis shows that the current Kyoto-Protocol Climate Protection System, and other proposals for improving the commitment system may not be capable of meeting the ultimate objective 'to prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system'. On the other hand, says the author, there is hope that the implementation of Global Climate Certification Systems are a beginning that offers a chance for mankind to prevent dangerous climate change.
MLB New York Yankees White on White 59FIFTY Fitted Cap (7 5/8)59FIFTY is the official on-field cap of Major League Baseball and is worn by every Major League Baseball player. With this fashion version of the 59FIFTY you can show your team pride with style.
Stimulus Cash Finder: How to get your Share of the $787 Billion Stimulus BillThis Stimulus Cash Finder makes it easy and efficient to find which ones of the 268 stimulus programs in the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act 2009 (ARRA) are right for you. This book solves 2 major problems of the original Act: a Contents with no page numbers and programs distributed all over the Act. In this book there are 5 ways to research programs: a 15 page detailed Contents with page numbers, a List of all programs, 60 page Stimulus Finder which groups programs together, Funding Totals, and a 250 item Index. (You may want to upgrade now to Rupert Hart's "Guide to the Stimulus: The Definitive Desk Reference to the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act 2009", $34.95. Same book as the "Stimulus Cash Finder" but also contains the full unabridged Text of the Act in large readable format with all programs highlighted, all in one bound book). Invaluable for individual taxpayers, families, business owners, managers, investors, state officials, and libraries.
From the supplier: J. Peter Grace divides his time between being CEO of W.R. Grace and Co and co-chairman of the non-profit group Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW). The head of the successful specialty chemicals company began his campaign against wasteful government spending when he was appointed by President Reagan to chair the President's Private Sector Survey on Cost Control in 1982. Grace was able to recommend 2,478 dollar-saving measures that were expected to reduce government spending by $424.4 billion over a three-year period. The 79-year old CEO continues to monitor inefficiency, mismanagement and waste in the federal government as part of the CAGW, which he co-chairs with columnist Jack Anderson. The CAGW estimates that wasteful spending in 1992 alone will reach $166.6 billion and may rise to $921 billion over a five-year period. Grace urges the public to voice out their objection.
Citation Details
Title: Peter Grace. (CEO of W.R. Grace and Co.) (N.B.)
Author: Paul Helou
Publication: Chief Executive (U.S.) (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 1, 1992
Publisher: Chief Executive Publishing
Issue: n77 Page: p19(2)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
From the author: This paper uses a multicountry macroeconometric model to estimate the macro-economic effects of the U.S. stimulus bill passed in February 2009. The analysis has the advantage of taking into account many endogenous effects. Real U.S. output is estimated to be $554 billion larger when summed over the 12-year period 2009:1-2020:4 (0.29% of the total sum of output). The average number of jobs is 509 thousand larger (0.37%). There is some redistribution of output and employment away from 2012 to 2015. At the end of 2020, the federal government debt is larger by $637 billion in real terms (the debt/GDP ratio is larger by 3.19 percentage points), which may increase the risk of negative asset-market reactions. (JEL E17)
Citation Details
Title: Estimated macroeconomic effects of the U.S. stimulus bill.(Report)
Author: Ray C. Fair
Publication: Contemporary Economic Policy (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 1, 2010
Publisher: Western Economic Association International
Volume: 28 Issue: 4 Page: 439(14)
Article Type: Report
Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning
