The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.
Why Can’t Johnny Read the Conference Report?
This afternoon, by a vote of 246-183, the House passed the conference report on the so-called stimulus package. Senate approval is expected soon, which will send the legislation to President Obama for his signature. So what’s in the bill? According to U.S. News & World Report’s Paul Bedard, hardly anyone knows:
We’re receiving E-mails from Capitol Hill staffers expressing frustration that they can’t get a copy of the stimulus bill agreed to last night at a price of $789 billion. What’s more, staffers are complaining about who does have a copy: K Street lobbyists. E-mails one key Democratic staffer: “K Street has the bill, or chunks of it, already, and the congressional offices don’t. So, the Hill is getting calls from the press (because it’s leaking out) asking us to confirm or talk about what we know-but we can’t do that because we haven’t seen the bill. Anyway, peeps [people] up here are sort of a combo of confused and like, ‘Is this really happening?’ “
It’s that damn Republican culture of corruption again! This will all change if the Democrats ever win control of Congress.
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