You elected them to write new laws. They’re letting corporations do it instead.
USA Today,
by
Rob O´dell
&
Nick Penzenstadler
Original Article
Posted By: M2,
4/4/2019 11:37:24 AM
Each year, state lawmakers across the U.S. introduce thousands of bills dreamed up and written by corporations, industry groups and think tanks. Disguised as the work of lawmakers, these so-called “model” bills get copied in one state Capitol after another, quietly advancing the agenda of the people who write them. A two-year investigation by USA TODAY, The Arizona Republic? and the Center for Public Integrity reveals for the first time the extent to which special interests have infiltrated state legislatures using model legislation. USA TODAY and the Republic found at least 10,000 bills almost entirely copied from model legislation were introduced nationwide in
Reply 1 - Posted by:
earlybird 4/4/2019 11:41:46 AM (No. 23144)
We have known for some time that the lawmakers in Congress do not write the laws. The lobbyists do. The Conservative Treehouse has talked about this for years. We won’t usually find it in the MSM.
It should come as no surprise that the same thing goes on in the state legislatures.
12 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
earlybird 4/4/2019 11:46:37 AM (No. 23149)
(hit submit too soon)
Many, heck, most people think when they vote for a federal politician -a representative- they are voting for a person who will go to Washington DC and write or enact legislation. This is the old-fashioned “schoolhouse rock” perspective based on decades past.
There is not a single congress person who writes legislation or laws.(Snip)
Over the past several decades a system of constructing legislation has taken over Washington DC that more resembles a business operation than a legislative body. Here’s how it works right now.
Much more here:
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2017/11/16/legislation-and-lobbyists/
12 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Nimby 4/4/2019 11:54:02 AM (No. 23146)
Write new laws? These critters cannot even write a high-school essay on the constitution and role of Government, even if their lives depended on it.
11 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Rumblehog 4/4/2019 11:54:26 AM (No. 23145)
I elected them to undo old laws, not write new ones.
13 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
bhkat 4/4/2019 11:57:41 AM (No. 23153)
I don´t elect people to write new laws, I elect people to stop democrats from writing laws.
12 people like this.
Oh, NO! I find it amazing that anyone is shocked or even surprised by this. Running for office ain´t cheap, but it can be incredibly profitable in so many ways. And let´s not forget, all interests, including the "public interest" are special interests.
Politics is simply how our republic, including state and local government, decides who gets what, when and how. At least, so said Harold Lasswell.
Don´t forget, send money...
10 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Janylou 4/4/2019 12:20:15 PM (No. 23157)
I often wonder when McPain was writing his campaign fianance law, he didn´t put in no campaign donations from corporations? I don´t care if you as an individual give money, but a business should not have more pull than an individual.
10 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
toddh 4/4/2019 12:32:25 PM (No. 23156)
Barack Obama was the PIRGasite president.
9 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
wilarrbie 4/4/2019 12:39:59 PM (No. 23155)
Seems to point out that our lawmakers are rather lazy and pliable, but no surprises here. That said - I did read the entire article but found nothing alarming in any of the examples of laws he gave, IF you understand that these laws seemed to come from corporations PUSHING BACK at laws that went too far in the first place. For instance: Asbestos. In a nutshell, corps. want it to be harder to sue them for asbestos harm claims. Seems dastardly on it´s face, but if one looks into the abuses and fraud to get some of the booty, I can see why those having to pay might want to curtail the easy-money train.
7 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
gaemerson 4/4/2019 12:48:25 PM (No. 23143)
I drafted these for years. If the author had taken civics in school they would know the laws come from many advocacy groups not just corporations. The legislature is the forum for the battle of ideas not the creation of laws out of whole cloth. NCSL ALEC and many other groups work to create many of these bills.
10 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Clinger 4/4/2019 12:48:50 PM (No. 23148)
There´s nothing wrong with we the people as corporations, clubs, any other group getting together, to propose legislation as a means of petitioning our government.
I learned a long time ago that the best way at times to get people to address my priority that may not be on the top of their to-do-list is to write the letter I want them to write then ask for a signature.
It´s the quid pro quo that is killing the republic.
Our politicians are getting filthy rich somehow, and it isn´t on what were paying them.
As we strayed away from the constitution and the basic concept of equal justice for all, politicians have carved out mechanisms for unequal treatment to sell to the highest bidder. Regulations and tax policy are prime examples. We entrusted representatives to protect our rights and freedoms and they sold it.
Does anybody really think that the founders intended congress to "delegate" their responsibility to agencies under the control of the executive branch?
Does anybody really think the founders created the balanced three branches of government and legislative process only for taxation to become a means of defining acceptable social boundaries?
8 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
DVC 4/4/2019 2:28:23 PM (No. 23154)
I largely wrote and rewrote several of our state laws relating to firearms, and did entirely write our CCW shooting qualification and testing standards, all the questions and answers on the test. I was working with a legislator on the laws, and for the State AG on the regulations as part of a subcommittee appointed by the AG.
Frankly, subject matter experts are needed to avoid making laws and regulations into a total hash of errors and problems.
If you get a subject matter expert who is on your same political side, THAT is how you get properly written laws.
I have not the slightest problem with the concept, but choosing folks with the wrong motives is a bad idea, and not closely reviewing their work is also a bad idea.
10 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
DVC 4/4/2019 2:32:52 PM (No. 23152)
Clarification of the above post.
In each case, we took other successful state laws and regulations as models and guides and rewrote them as needed for our situation. I and the people I worked with did not originate every line of these laws, and we had lawyers review them and make necessary changes, too. But we were responsible for what the end content was.
7 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
lakerman1 4/4/2019 5:47:33 PM (No. 23151)
The Council of State Governments used to, and still may, issue suggested state legislation
on a variety of subjects.
And there was a Texas stare legislator who would take the suggested legislation and introduce it in Texas.
One of the proposed bits of legislation had to do with the licensing of snowmobiles, hardly an appropriate subject for Texas.
This article is consistent with the low standards of journalism practiced at USA Today.
8 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
whyyeseyec 4/5/2019 12:23:51 AM (No. 23147)
Every congress person who votes aye on a piece of legislation only know what they had added to the bill. The rest is a mystery to them. Pelosi confirmed that in 2010 when she said they needed to pass Ocare to find out what was in it.
6 people like this.
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Very long article.