The Constitution frequently gets lip service in Congress, but House Republicans next year will make sure it gets a lot more than that – the new rules the incoming majority party proposed this week call for a full reading of the country’s founding document on the floor of the House on Jan. 6.
The goal, backers said, is to underscore the limited-government rules the Founders imposed on Congress – and to try to bring some of those principles back into everyday legislating.
“It stems from the debate that we’ve had for the last two years about things like the exercise of authority in a whole host of different areas by the EPA, we’ve had this debate in relation to the health care bill, the cap-and-trade legislation,” said Rep. Robert W. Goodlatte, Virginia Republican, who proposed the reading. “This Congress has been very aggressive in expanding the power of the federal government, and there’s been a big backlash to that.”
This is akin to contestants in the Miss USA pageant telling the judges that they want world peace, to end hunger, and to save little kitties from trees. It's political posturing at it's most pathetic.
Certainly, this will go further to gin up the Republican base and provide more material for Fox"News". Likely the talking point of the moment will be "why didn't Democrats open each session with a reading of the Constitution"? To that, I would ask why the Republican majority didn't do it prior to the 11th Congress? Oh, that's right, we still had Bush in office. Silly me.
Make no mistake about it, Congressional Republicans aren't going to change course even though they have a majority in the House of Representatives. It's going to be the same "party of no" antics we've come to expect over the last two years. It's just that they are going to have to be the ones doing the explaining when the economy doesn't instantly rebound after Boehner bangs the gavel for the first time next month.
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