All the hidden goodies amount to a small fraction of 1% of the federal budget. The real issue is that they are goodies -- repayment for bribes... er... donations... given to those folks in Congress. When I first started coming to DC (once every two weeks for a day or two) in 1970, it was considered scandalous that on average a Representative spent an hour a day dialing for dollars. Today, members of Congress spend 4 to 6 hours a day.
Part of the reason is that negative ads are so effective despite usually being 99% irrelevant or untrue. Part of the reason is that ACLU has helped destroy more than 100 years of limits on campaign donations, all in the name of "free speech" -- as if corporations are people (an invention of crooked Supreme Courts in the 1870s) and money is speech.
Part of the reason is that bills are getting longer and longer. It used to be that bills gave executive agencies fairly wide enforcement latitude in response to changing technologies. If an argument went to court, the Congressional Record deliberations were parsed to get the sense of Congress -- as if Congress as a whole is unfailingly sensible. Conservative courts said this violated separation of powers doctrine -- so bills became longer and more precise... and also far more brittle -- and there is now a lot more room to hide stuff.
I find it sadly interesting that while multiple news sources this weekend report that while Trump is supporting TikTok, none are reminding us that the company gave his campaign $1 million.
All the hidden goodies amount to a small fraction of 1% of the federal budget. The real issue is that they are goodies -- repayment for bribes... er... donations... given to those folks in Congress. When I first started coming to DC (once every two weeks for a day or two) in 1970, it was considered scandalous that on average a Representative spent an hour a day dialing for dollars. Today, members of Congress spend 4 to 6 hours a day.
Part of the reason is that negative ads are so effective despite usually being 99% irrelevant or untrue. Part of the reason is that ACLU has helped destroy more than 100 years of limits on campaign donations, all in the name of "free speech" -- as if corporations are people (an invention of crooked Supreme Courts in the 1870s) and money is speech.
Part of the reason is that bills are getting longer and longer. It used to be that bills gave executive agencies fairly wide enforcement latitude in response to changing technologies. If an argument went to court, the Congressional Record deliberations were parsed to get the sense of Congress -- as if Congress as a whole is unfailingly sensible. Conservative courts said this violated separation of powers doctrine -- so bills became longer and more precise... and also far more brittle -- and there is now a lot more room to hide stuff.
Another good historical review, Chris.
I find it sadly interesting that while multiple news sources this weekend report that while Trump is supporting TikTok, none are reminding us that the company gave his campaign $1 million.