Would you sign a contract without reading it and at least attempting to understand the obligations the contract would impose on you, your family, or your business? How would you react if you retained an attorney to help you negotiate and understand the contract and later discovered the attorney had not read the contract in its entirety? Would you think your attorney was guilty of legal malpractice? Would you use the same attorney again?
In our society, we have extensive rules and regulations that govern virtually every profession. These rules and regulations are designed to protect the public by preventing people who do not have the necessary education and qualifications from practicing the profession. Only persons with a medical license, for example, are authorized to practice medicine. In order to obtain a medical license, an individual, among other things, must graduate from a medical school and pass an examination administered by a medical board. Similar licensing requirements apply to dentists, pharmacists, nurses, lawyers, certified public accountants, engineers, architects, teachers, and a host of other professions. Although the need for some of the licensing requirements could be debated, they are all designed to ensure that people who engage in the regulated professions are qualified to do so.
A license does not guarantee the holder of the license will not commit professional malpractice, but it minimizes the risk of malpractice by ensuring the professional has the background and training necessary to practice the profession for which the license was issued. Moreover, a licensed professional who commits malpractice can be sued for the damages he or she has caused. The attorney who fails to read a client’s contract is guilty of legal malpractice and can and should be held personally responsible for the damages caused by the attorney’s malfeasance. Likewise, a doctor who does not properly treat a patient is guilty of medical malpractice and can be sued by the injured party. There are many examples of lawsuits against other professionals who have committed malpractice.
There is a least one profession whose members face no requirements whatsoever relating to their competence or knowledge. The members of this profession also face little, if any, risk of personal liability even if they are grossly negligent in the performance of their duties. I am referring, of course, to our politicians and specifically to members of the United States Congress. The founders of our country did not contemplate we would have professional politicians, but unfortunately we do, and many of them can be found in the halls of Congress. Our Congressmen live at the expense of the taxpayers and have tremendous influence over our lives, but they have virtually no responsibility for their actions. They can get elected and remain in office simply by buying votes with taxpayer money. They do this by promising and giving favors to the individuals and groups that help them get elected. The favors generally consist of tax breaks for special groups, exemptions from regulations that apply to everyone else, or direct government payments to individuals, businesses, or other organizations for goods or services or for no reason at all.
A member of Congress does not need to be competent or to have even a minimum level of knowledge about the matters on which he or she will be making decisions. I suspect many members of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, have never read the Declaration of Independence or the United States Constitution in their entirety. I also suspect many members of Congress are not well informed regarding world history or the history of the United States. It is clear many members of Congress do not have even a basic understanding of economics and have never run a business or made a payroll.
It would be nice if we could ensure that all members of Congress were competent, but I don’t think there is any way to do so. What bothers me most, however, is not the competency of members of Congress but the malpractice committed by them in the performance of their duties. We are seeing more and more instances where members of Congress vote on legislation they have not read and have not taken the time to understand. When members of Congress vote on legislation they have not read and do not understand, they are, in my opinion, guilty of malpractice in the same way an attorney who fails to read a contract for his client is guilty of malpractice.
The most recent example of Congressional malpractice occurred several days ago when the House of Representatives, by a vote of 219 to 212, approved landmark climate change legislation. The climate change bill, which is formerly known as the American Clean Energy and Security Act, contained approximately 1,200 pages. Some 300 of those pages were contained in an amendment that was not available until the day the vote was taken. It is obvious not a single member of the House of Representatives read the final bill before voting on it.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the bill no one read, “will reach into almost every corner of the U.S. economy. By putting a price on emissions of common gases, such as carbon dioxide, the bill would affect the way electricity is generated, how homes and offices are designed, how foreign trade is conducted and how much Americans pay to drive cars or to heat their homes.” In its report on the bill, The New York Times said it “grew fat with compromises, carve-outs, concessions and out-and-out gifts intended to win the votes of wavering lawmakers and the support of powerful industries.” The Times said Rep. Henry Waxman, a California Democrat and the co-author of the bill, was “doling out billions of dollars in promises on the House floor to secure the final votes needed for passage.” The Heritage Foundation says the climate change bill, which is also referred to as a “cap-and-trade” bill, is nothing more than a tax on energy consumption. “In fact, it would be a huge tax. If enacted, cap-and-trade would be one of the government’s largest revenue sources within the next decade.” An article in American Thinker said the bill “will result in one of the largest seizures of wealth in human history” and will “wreck havoc on American manufacturing and industry, and coerce the conformity of an already economically squeezed populace.”
The process by which the climate change bill was approved was very similar to the process by which Congress approved the $782 billion stimulus legislation earlier in the year. The stimulus bill was the single most expensive and expansive piece of legislation ever enacted by Congress. Although the bill contained more than 1,000 pages and weighed more than five pounds, it was not available until early in the morning on the same day it was approved by both the House and the Senate. Like the climate change legislation, it is safe to say not a single member of Congress read the stimulus bill before voting on it. Provisions involving billions of dollars of taxpayer money were never discussed or debated.
There are many reasons why members of Congress are not reading and understanding the bills on which they are voting. Some of them probably have no interest in the details of legislation. They will blindly vote the way their party’s leaders tell them to vote without regard to the contents of the legislation on which they are voting. But even those members of Congress who are conscientious and would like to understand the details of the bills before them do not have time to do so. The problem is that too many major matters are being considered too quickly and at the same time. President Obama has an aggressive and radical agenda designed to change virtually all aspects of the way we live. Among other things, he wants to reform our health care system, change the way our financial institutions are regulated, control the climate, regulate the way energy is created and distributed, revise our immigration laws, and overhaul the public education and Social Security systems. At the same time, the country is in a deep recession, is engaged in two wars, and is facing major threats from the development of nuclear weapons by Iran and North Korea. President Obama wants to ramrod through the system as many changes as he can without giving members of Congress and the public the time needed to focus on the details or the implications of the changes being proposed. There is a method to his madness, and his method is working thanks to the gross negligence of members of Congress.
When running for election, President Obama promised openness and transparency, but it is clear we are not getting openness and transparency. Instead, we have members of Congress voting on extremely complex legislation that will result in sweeping and fundamental changes in our society without taking the time to read and understand the legislation or consider its implications. A lawyer or other professional who takes on more business than he or she can competently handle is guilty of malpractice. What we are witnessing today is Congressional malpractice on a very large scale. Unlike lawyers, doctors, or other professionals, however, members of Congress have no liability for their malpractice. Moreover, they can retain their positions of power by trading their votes on the bills they are not reading in exchange for special provisions benefitting the people who give them money and help them get elected.
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