Politician Tricks You Need to Watch Out For

I want to encourage each and every one of you to sit quietly and closely observe your Congressman’s and Senator’s behavior during this attempt at health care reform. Never will you be given a better opportunity to observe where their priorities are.

It’s not always as easy as this. Senators that fight health care reform without a single reasonable idea are in essence saying and fighting for a system that is allowing us to be ripped off and thousands of us to die from the lack of care.

Do you think someone on the public payroll that allows this is working for “the people”? Come on now, this is no time for wishful thinking.

Now, here are some of the “sneaky tricks”, some routinely used -  I’ve seen since I started watching our lawmakers.By the way, most of them are pretty good, it’s just that the bad ones are SO bad.

All Talk and No Action:

Big talk about the bill they’re going to write to fix your current problem. Especially watch those that place their hands over their hearts and plead convincingly for “the people”. Seriously, just watching this as you track how they vote is enough to make you cringe in discomfort at their blatant dishonesty. The outcome is that the bill never gets written.

Bill Sabotage:

They write the bill but write it in a fashion that they know will keep other reps from voting for it. The “poison pill” process.

i.e., I write a bill that requires every parent to pony up a buck at election time for community child care. Then I add that this money will only pay people of certain religions to care for the children.

Amend Me to Death:

They write the bill as promised, then allow another Senator to add an “amendment” that makes it useless.

 i.e., I write a bill to raise money for cancer that adds 1.00 to the price of every gallon of milk sold in this country. Then I allow an amendment that says 99 cents of those dollars will be given to Congress for raises.

Don’t laugh until you see some of the bills your people have written. Congress has written laws so that they automatically get two raises a year while judges don’t get evaluated, doctors get LESS each year for Medicare reimbursments and minimum wage for the people was static for years.

LIE About the Effect of a Bill

example:

A Senator is writing a bill that protects women with breast cancer from being turned down by doctors.

I “leak” a rumor to the press that the law would allow doctors to slap their patients if they don’t respond to treatment quickly enough. The people are outraged and the bill is dropped.

Lie About Why They Voted Against a Bill

Here’s the one you really want to watch for: voting against a fix because it’s not strong enough. This is one of the most common because sometimes it’s legit.

If I write a law saying that anyone with a “teen” on the end of their age – caught with a firearm will be put in chains and screamed at in the public square.

You vote against it saying you think the teen should be given a good beating instead.

You’ve stopped the bill and your lobbyists can continue selling arms to teenagers.

            This needs careful follow up. If they voted against it, did they have a better option to offer? Did anyone?

Cancel That:

A law is written and the moment it is passed, someone else begins proceedings to strike/reverse the law - often that no one hears about.

Bills that Get Passed Quietly in the Night.

Lobbyist chose a no-name member of the house and get them to pass a bill quietly, often late at night. The first we hear of it is when we get caught in whatever snare it sets. Sometimes this is done with a major Senator, but more often it’s an unknown.

Sent to Committee (Forever)

Congress has “committees” that evaluate bills for their practicality and effects in key areas of our lives

In “sent to committee forever” a bill is sent to the committee and it never sees daylight again. This procedure allows any idiot to write any idiotic law to make political points without anyone ever having to vote it up or down. It’s all part of a political cha-cha-cha.

By the way, most of the committee meetings are held in private

Laws Written in Language No One Understands or Wants To

This is self explanatory. Legalese with a lot of double talk and gibberish mixed in.

Naming a Bill Inappropriately

I’m writing a bill and I call it the “save the dogs” bill when it’s actually a bill to triple the cost of licensing your dog.

Adding Items to a Bill That Are Completely (or should be) Unrelated

Who remembers the name for this?

For example:

I write a bill to budget for bullets for our soldiers. Knowing that we would all want our soldiers to have bullets, a colleague adds to the end of it: Establish a free, luxury health spa for the Senate.

The Senate gets it’s spa when the bullets are approved.

Stinks, doesn’t it?

By the same token, we can’t begrudge our legislators and government every little thing they need either.

All told, this is a difficult, if not impossible way to manage a budget.

Our Part of All of This

We need to do our homework.

Read the bills, see what political analysts say about them, see what other members of the public think of them. If you know the law in question, help others understand what it really says.

Then follow up on the votes!! This is important. Make sure you know how your reps vote for sure. You may be shocked. I was.

Hold the media to a higher standard of involvement in our affairs. Demand that they keep us informed. We need their help more than they need to get rich-but don’t hold your breath.

We, the people, are responsible for the way this country runs. We need to educate ourselves and watch our legislators carefully.

Like I said before, the good members of Congress are regularly negated by the less than sterling group often by a simple misinformative leak to the press.

Listen with caution. Check on facts being spouted. If they’re wrong, go back to the source and chew them out. (make sure you know for sure)

Believing everything we’re told has cost us some good legislation.

The devil’s favorite playthings besides greed are apathy, cynicism and “overwhelment”. (the state of being overwhelmed by it all - I know, it’s not a word, but it should be)

Throwing your hands in the air and declaring, “It’s All Politics” might make you feel better by allowing you to ignore it all, but it doesn’t help your family or country. You need to know that the rotten-to-the-core types rely on you getting confused easily and giving up.

Last but not least,

            If your Senator is among the “evil doers” working for the big-buck-boys at the expense of the rest of their constituents, for heaven’s (and America’s) sake, get them the hell out of America’s political system!!

With determination,

The Political Stray