Vendzilla

Both parties have abused what the purpose of the 20th amendment was, do you think they need to make an adjustment to the amendment?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...121703572.html

The 20th Amendment


The trouble with lame-duck sessions began in 1801, when the outgoing Federalists used their last days in power to help appoint a bunch of judges. It flared up again in 1922, when President Warren Harding and the lame-duck Republicans tried to ram through unpopular legislation after their defeats.

Opponents said this was un-democratic: These sessions seemed to violate the ever-popular Washington rule that "elections have consequences." Finally, Congress passed - and the states ratified - the 20th Amendment.

Historians say lawmakers thought they were ending lame-duck Congresses forever.

"This amendment will free Congress of the dead hand of the so-called 'lame duck,' " Rep. Wilburn Cartwright (D-Okla.) said as it was debated in 1932.

But there was a problem. The amendment didn't actually say it would end lame-duck Congresses forever. Its text only moved Congress's end date from March back to early January (it also shifted the presidential inauguration from March to Jan. 20).

At that time, historians say, it was inconceivable that lawmakers would journey back to Washington to meet for a few weeks after Thanksgiving.

"The big mistake of the crafters of the 20th Amendment was that they didn't really anticipate airplane travel," said Bruce Ackerman, a Yale University law professor. "It takes a lot of time to go from a district in Texas by train to Washington, D.C. Who's going to schlep there?"

Still, for the next 47 years, the amendment seemed mostly to work as intended. There were some lame-duck sessions, often in wartime, but no grand legislative agendas.

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Carbon is not the problem, it makes up 0.041% of our atmosphere , 95% of that is from Volcanos and decomposing plants and stuff. So people in the US are responsible for 13% of the carbon in the atmosphere which 95% is not from Humans, like cars and trucks and stuff and they want to spend trillions to fix it while Solar Panel plants are powered by coal plants
think about that

beerptrol

they should just rename it lame-douchebags

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“If we are to have another contest in the near future of our national existence, I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon's but between patriotism and intelligence on the one side, and superstition, ambition and ignorance on the other.”
-- Ulysses S. Grant

Wizzo

Yeah, we should adjust it to abolish the party system and make congress represent the people rather than a party...

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Looking for Opportunity!

Vendzilla

Wishful thinking, but I would be behind it. When there is a balance, things work better, but we haven't had a balance since 2000.

As for the Lame duck sessions, they aren't representing the people, they got voted out and shouldn't be making last minute votes like this.

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Carbon is not the problem, it makes up 0.041% of our atmosphere , 95% of that is from Volcanos and decomposing plants and stuff. So people in the US are responsible for 13% of the carbon in the atmosphere which 95% is not from Humans, like cars and trucks and stuff and they want to spend trillions to fix it while Solar Panel plants are powered by coal plants
think about that

Vendzilla

Here's some shit on the food safety bill they just passed
http://www.naturalnews.com/030587_Se...od_Safety.html

Man it's getting worse, they will be getting rid of the farmers market next

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Carbon is not the problem, it makes up 0.041% of our atmosphere , 95% of that is from Volcanos and decomposing plants and stuff. So people in the US are responsible for 13% of the carbon in the atmosphere which 95% is not from Humans, like cars and trucks and stuff and they want to spend trillions to fix it while Solar Panel plants are powered by coal plants
think about that

kane

While the lame duck congress is often abused by the party in power (especially if they are about to lose that power in Jan.) I'm not sure what else you can do. You could have it so that the election is held and if you lose you are gone the next day and the winner takes over. The problem with that is that there would be not a lame duck congress, but a congress incapable of doing anything. When you get elected to the house or senate it takes a little time to make the transition. You have to hire a staff, deal with any family issues you may have while you live a large portion of the year in D.C and then just get the rules, regulations and practices down.

So if the losers were just thrown out the day after, the question is how long wold it be before the winners were actually in place and ready to work?

Vendzilla

Something needs to be done, I think the best approach would be only emergency bills get up for a vote, but they won't follow that either, like when they passed the pay as you go, then declared everything they wanted after that an emergency.


http://reason.com/archives/2010/12/0...-duck-sessions
I join with all Americans who dream of a day when Washington is broken enough to see a Congress rigged to prevent any more "progress." But the trouble with lame-duck sessions happens to be the opposite. It is one thing to be abused by democracy and quite another to be abused by a bunch of rejected, disgruntled and disconnected politicians.

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Carbon is not the problem, it makes up 0.041% of our atmosphere , 95% of that is from Volcanos and decomposing plants and stuff. So people in the US are responsible for 13% of the carbon in the atmosphere which 95% is not from Humans, like cars and trucks and stuff and they want to spend trillions to fix it while Solar Panel plants are powered by coal plants
think about that