Congress Needs to Speed Read Like Crazy to Study Stimulus

At 1,434 pages, 13 hours hardly enough
By Gabriel Winant,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 13, 2009 7:09 AM CST
Congress Needs to Speed Read Like Crazy to Study Stimulus
House Republican Leader Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, responds to questions Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009 on Capitol Hill in Washington.   (AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke)

It might be called a stimulus bill, but it’s far from stimulating reading. At 1,434 pages, and written in the usual incomprehensible legalese, the stimulus is going to be passed unread by members of Congress. That’s no fault of theirs, blogs Jimmie Bise at the Sundries Shack; to read the bill in time, they would have to average 640.5 words per minute for 13 hours.

“If anyone needs a potty break, they’d better take the bill with them,” Bise writes. Democrats say we need the bill fast, but pushing for a 9am vote seems a little much. “Just know as you’re at work tomorrow," he wrote yesterday, "that the Democrats will be voting to spend about $800 billion dollars without having the foggiest idea what they’ll be spending it all on.”
(More economic stimulus package stories.)

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