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submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

A Republican congressman admitted to his constituents that he wasn’t familiar with part of the massive tax-and-spending cut legislation he voted for last week.

At a raucous town hall meeting in Seward, Nebraska, a constituent asked Rep. Mike Flood (R-Neb.) about a part of the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” aimed at preventing federal courts from blocking power grabs by the Trump administration.

“I am not going to hide the truth. This provision was unknown to me when I voted for that bill, and when I found out that provision was in the bill, I immediately reached out to my Senate counterparts and told them of my concern,” Flood said.

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[-] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago

You had one job. That you didn't.

He does not have to know every word of every bill. He does not have to read it, but then he need some serious reliable people who read it for him and tell him what is in there, especially when it comes to uboots in the law or technicalities. But he bears the total responsibility for what he voted for, and cannot claim ignorance.

[-] [email protected] 173 points 1 day ago

these are the same morons that block rules like 'bills must be read in their entirety by congressman before they can vote on it'...

you know, their fucking jobs.

reminder: these useless fucks get universal healthcare and are legally allowed to insider trade the stock market.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

Technically, they now get their healthcare off the ACA exchange. This change occurred in 2008

[-] [email protected] 18 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

These bills are sometimes gigantic and no congressperson could possibly read the entire bill for everything they vote on. They are supposed to have people who read the bills and give them a summary.

Affordable Care Act is 1,100 pages. And then you have to remember that other healthcare proposals that got voted down were also similar lengths.

[-] [email protected] 44 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

They're representative politicians in a supposed representative democracy.

The word representative means they are there in place of "the people" because you can't expect everyone to read and fully understand everything.

That is therefore the politician's job. They are not supposed to have people to summarise the bill for them. They are meant to understand it and determine whether to vote yes or no based on the needs and requirements of their constituents.

If the bill is too long or complex then they should vote no until they can understand the whole thing.

In the opposite of The Simpsons Governator, they are meant to read, not to lead!

[-] [email protected] 25 points 1 day ago

Ya, maybe bills shouldn't be 1000+ pages so that people can actually know what is in them.

This is a concept that somehow software developers seem to grasp, but lawmakers don't?

Try submitting a pull request with 100,000 lines of code to the Linux kernel, or any other serious project. Nobody is going to review and accept it because that is a rediculous amount of code to change with a single PR. How much more important is a federal law than a software project? Yet one will have maintainers pour over it line by line while the other the "maintainers" don't even read.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

Isn't their length the point? Maybe half of that is about the topic, rest is lobbying effort from what I heard

[-] [email protected] 34 points 1 day ago

The ridiculous length of most of these bills now is a major part of the problem. They are usually written on K St by lobbying firms and think tanks, then handed to favorable Congress critters to be introduced.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

They are usually written on K St by lobbying firms and think tanks, then handed to favorable Congress critters to be introduced.

And that's not a new phenomenon. It had been happening since Reagan (and probably before that)

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

The Heritage Foundation was founded in 1973. It was probably still happening before that, though.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

They've been slowly getting their tentacles into the system for a very long time.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago

It's intentional.

Literally every aspect of our democracy has been gamed.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Maybe they're so big because no one has been made to read the entire thing, and thus, been irritated enough to shorten their own bills.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

Their job is to get money for the party and to vote for what the party tells them to vote for

[-] [email protected] 21 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

What's that site that gives you the summary to start from or read and the numbers for your representatives? Probably time to link it again.

Edit:

https://5calls.org/issue/court-contempt-enforcement-cuts-budget-reconciliation/

But you'll have to look up your own numbers for this one.

[-] [email protected] 58 points 1 day ago

can someone go tell the Nebraskans to primary this guy out? he seems kinda dumb

[-] [email protected] 33 points 1 day ago

He's a Republican in Nebraska. Being kinda dumb is mandatory for that variety of politician.

[-] [email protected] 19 points 1 day ago

Nebraska votes for whatever isn’t blue. Whatever says “babies and Jesus” and “I promise there is no lead in your water” and “you aren’t dumb”

[-] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago

“I promise there is no lead in your water”

At this point I think they're promising to get rid of fluoride, not lead.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

It's not easy but we could build a water softener that replaces flouride in the water with lead. I bet they'd fucking love that. Slap a trump hat on it and charge $2k per install. MADE IN AMERICA, BABY!

[-] [email protected] 41 points 1 day ago

Even if they know that they're voting against the interests of their constituents, it won't change a thing

They have to bend their knee to Trump, no matter what

The same stupid constituents who are moaning now would also be complaining if he voted against the bill

[-] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

It looks like he was bathing with RFK Jr.

this post was submitted on 29 May 2025
408 points (99.5% liked)

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