New Fox News Op-ed: Is It Worth $62,000 to You?

My new Fox News piece story is here:

The stimulus bill had to be passed quickly. President Obama warned that not passing it would result in disaster. He warned that any delay was “inexcusable.” The 1,071 page stimulus bill had to be voted on quickly -- so quickly this last week that the House and the Senate couldn’t even provide politicians the 48 hours they were supposed to have to read it.

The legislation was not put up on the web until 11 PM on Thursday evening, and the House passed it just 12 hours later. The Senate started voting on it only hours after that. Politician after politician admitted or complained that it was physically impossible to read the bill. As it was, the copies available on the web for voters had all sorts of hand markings on it that sometimes made it difficult to figure out exactly what the bill proposed.

Despite all this pressure, Obama seems rather laid back after the bill was passed – he doesn’t plan the signing ceremony until Tuesday. As the New York Post noted, after passage, Obama “promptly took off for a three-day holiday getaway.” Possibly, Obama’s vacation was well deserved, but why couldn’t Congress have held debate and votes over the weekend or Monday and to allow some time to read the bill? . . . .

abudzar