Boehner Cleans Up Congressional “Sausage Making”

Most Americans have heard that legislating is like making sausage.  Everyone likes the product, but no one likes how it gets made.  According to a NewYork Times article, the incoming Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, is about to make the process as interesting as the the product.

It is usual for the House to tweak these rules with each new session. But Representative John A. Boehner, who on Wednesday will be sworn in as the new speaker, has made serious alterations in the rules. Members will vote on Wednesday on changes that ostensibly increase the transparency of lawmaking, but also consolidate Republican power over the budget process.

If the New York Times sees Boehner’s moves as increasing transparency .. it must be so.  Finally, a Conservative will accomplish with Pelosi, Reid and Obama have been lying about for the last several years: transparency, accountability, fairness.  The article continues with some lip-smacking good details (emphasis mine)

Mr. Boehner seeks to do away with large omnibus spending bills, preferring to break them into smaller bills, and to allow for more amendments on bills generally, and more extensive debate.

Ruh-roh, over-porked gigantic spending bills were a source for some of the articles on CDN .. could the end be near?

Members offering bills for new programs will have to explain how they will pay for them, not by raising new revenues but by finding other ways to cut costs. Each bill introduced will also have to cite the specific constitutional authority for its contents

This is the kind of accountability I want from my legislators.  How will you pay for it and prove its constitutionality upon authoring the bill.  Mr. Boehner’s prepared remarks for Wednesday’s speech at the gavel ceremony spell it out:

We will dispense with the conventional wisdom that bigger bills are always better; that fast legislating is good legislating; that allowing additional amendments and open debate makes the legislative process ‘less efficient’ than our forefathers intended. These misconceptions have been the basis for the rituals of modern Washington. The American people have not been well served by them.

Where the old grey lady got it wrong was when they attacked the House for their approach to repealing the highly-costly Obamacare law.

That bill will not be subject to amendments, nor will Republicans have to abide by their own new rules that compel them to offset the cost of new bills that add to the deficit; the health care repeal and tax cuts are not subject to this new rule.

Why would the GOP need to show how they will pay for repealing a bill that will cost over one trillion dollars?  Heck, just repealing the thing will save money.  If nothing else, nothing in Obamacare that saved federal dollars went into affect in 2010, so the cost of repeal is .. nothing, nada, zero.  The Republicans are repealing a law that is largely not yet in effect.

It is yet to be seen if House Republicans can truly live up to their fiscally-conservative promises.  From what I see coming from Mr. Boehner, they have already done more to increase transparency, accountability and trust in just 24 hours than the tyrant trio of Pelosi, Reid and Obama managed in 2 years.