And A Red Ryder BB Gun

Hey look, the Senate is trying to add all sorts of crap as amendments to the financial regulation bill before they quit for the year.

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., wants the government to finish building the 700-mile fence between the U.S. and Mexico. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., wants to end the health insurance industry's antitrust protection. West Virginia's two senators want help with mine and oil rig safety.


They all want to add these things to the financial regulatory overhaul bill that's moving through the Senate, even though their ideas have little or nothing to do with oversight of financial markets.

Senators have proposed 326 amendments to the bill, whose chief purpose is to revamp the system that's regulated financial institutions since the Great Depression, but failed to prevent the current deep recession.
The bill could be the last major legislation this Congress approves — and draw enormous media attention — before November's congressional elections. That's why it's attracting a lot of extraneous amendments.

"A lot of senators see this bill as a good forum, and they see the session winding down after this," said David Arkush, the director of Congress Watch, a watchdog group.

Yeah, I mean with Election Day nearly six months away, the Senate really doesn't have time to do any work between now and then with all the Not Work they have to do.

 

So, they're trying to get it all done now.  So they can go home and tell everyone how great they are for working six months out of the year and how they are fighting for you!

And people wonder why Congress has an approval rating in the teens.