Let’s Play “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader” on Capitol Hill

By Liz Harrison
Apr 27, 2012

CDN:

What the U.S. needs more than anything right now might be an amendment to the laws that determine eligibility of individuals seeking public office. Debbie Wasserman Schultz could be the poster-child for promoting this move. Her failure to grasp her own job description is just simply disgusting. Bret Baier deserves a medal for not laughing out loud at her, or otherwise losing his cool in the face of utter incompetence.

Schultz was nonplussed during her interview for a very simple reason. The process that she was talking about was obviously unknown to her. Now, her constituents should be thinking long and hard about her continuing to represent them, because if she doesn’t understand the legislative process at this point, then she’s not representing them very well. The other option is that she was taken off-guard when Baier refused to let up on the issue of the Senate Democrats not passing a budget. Schultz did mumble something about November, so maybe she really meant that the Democrats have no intention of doing their jobs as far as the budget is concerned until after the election. Either way, it is at best a matter of failing to do what they were sent to Washington to do.

But beyond Schultz, there is a sincere problem on the left when it comes to understanding the legislative process. The latest craze for the left-wing is to bash the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). According to them, ALEC is responsible for a vast right-wing conspiracy that will leave government at the mercy of business. Well, the reality is that to a certain extent, the government already is in that situation, since businesses are the greatest source of revenue, and they cause citizens to be employed, so they can pay taxes as well. But, this isn’t about economics this time.

These people would have everyone believe that what everyone should have learned in elementary or middle school about the legislative process is a lie. Bills from ALEC miraculously get printed, given to legislatures, and get passed without a single word changed. Sorry, but the only items that sometimes manage to get the nod on the floor of any legislative body in this nation without at least some changes are those cute little resolutions recognizing local people or events in a given lawmaker’s district. Even some of those end up with amendments, too though. So to think that a complex piece of legislation would make it through the “process” Schultz kept talking about without any changes is bluntly insane.

Now, perhaps these left-wing folks might be harping on this because they might have figured out by now that their precious little lawmakers might not actually be reading the bills that they vote on. One can’t blame them for coming up with that one, since their lovely Nancy Pelosi infamously said the Hill had to pass Obamacare to find out what’s in it. But that problem goes back to the left-wing’s apparent inability to understand the legislative process. Arguably, it is their own fault that they keep putting people that put the cart before the horse in Congress. It isn’t ALEC’s fault that some lawmakers apparently don’t find it necessary to actually read a bill before voting on it. There also isn’t a vast right-wing conspiracy out there trying to pass evil laws. But there are probably at least a few Republican lawmakers that already know what’s been said here, and aren’t above exploiting it. That’s why they are in office, after all!