I think there's a huge difference between promoting and recognizing. It's not promoting a faith. But it is recognizing it. I'm all right with that. I'm also all right with being wished Merry Christmas, Happy Hannakah, Ramadan (or however you spell it), Passover, Easter or many of the others.
I'm fine with recognizing Christmas and Christians, but I'm not fine with my elected officials spending time and money proposing bills to recognize them. There are better things for them to be spending my money on.
I agree that there are other things I would like them to be resolving. I would be curious to know how much time is spent actually on this bill and what it costs to introduce it.
Here are the steps involved in considering a bill in Congress. Staff people and Congresspeople are spending time on each step. Each bill incurs costs for printing, publicizing, and archiving.
Yes I have always understood how the bills are introduced and that there is a cost associated with the bills. But I'm curious what the cost is. A $100 cost is significantly different than say $250,000.
This item was actually a simple resolution of the House of Representatives, not needing to go through nearly as much complicated stuff as what you linked to. While a simple resolution is indeed technically a bill (http://thomas.loc.gov/home/lawsmade.bysec/formsofaction.html), it does not have the force of law, as it's just a way for the House to express its opinion. It is one of 875 listed House Resolutions submitted to the 110th Congress through Thursday (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/d?d110:0:./list/bss/d110HE.lst:|TOM:/bss/110search.html|), and was one of 14 submitted in that week.
It received a roll call vote (http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=h2007-1143), and was passed 372 to 9, with 10 "present" votes and 40 members not voting for whatever reason. While it did take up some amount of time, it was probably small.
I usually read the WashPost on the day it arrives. But I've been sicker than usual in general (and now the UTI) and I end up having to go to bed first. I've been making some headway, but then there are days I can't read at all. I can skim the first section because I know the major national and world news, but there's things I want to know in the other sections. Except Sports and Classifieds.
On any given day that Congress is in session, there are typically several of these sorts of resolutions - and there have been ones recognizing holidays of other religions. The more typical ones are recognizing individuals. There are often several a day recognizing people retiring from government service, for example.
Some staffer (probably an intern, who makes about enough money to share a house with 6 other folks in a dicy neighborhood) spent a half a day revising the text. The congresscritter's staff director, who is spending a few years doing that to make connections he or she can use for a high paid job as a lobbyist, spent a half hour reviewing it and handed it to the congresscritter. The member introduced it and it was voted on in maybe 10 minutes max.
Nobody whining over this seems bothered by the fact that Christmas is a national holiday.
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Re: Separation of church and state in action
Re: Separation of church and state in action
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We are supposed to be a tolerant people.
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(Anonymous) 2007-12-14 07:12 pm (UTC)(link)no subject
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It received a roll call vote (http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=h2007-1143), and was passed 372 to 9, with 10 "present" votes and 40 members not voting for whatever reason. While it did take up some amount of time, it was probably small.
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Forgot to say I'm 23 days behind in the papers, or I would have known about this!
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Some staffer (probably an intern, who makes about enough money to share a house with 6 other folks in a dicy neighborhood) spent a half a day revising the text. The congresscritter's staff director, who is spending a few years doing that to make connections he or she can use for a high paid job as a lobbyist, spent a half hour reviewing it and handed it to the congresscritter. The member introduced it and it was voted on in maybe 10 minutes max.
Nobody whining over this seems bothered by the fact that Christmas is a national holiday.
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Bah!