Regarding austerity and cutting costs, even when it hurts…
According to Peter Keating at Vanity Fair, $1.1 million is the estimated cost of GOP plans to read the document on the House floor.
The amount I get is nearly $1.1 million. $1,071,872.87, to be exact, though of course this is more back-of-the-envelope than exact. When one chamber of Congress is in session but not working, we the people still have to pay for members’ salaries and expenses, and for their police protection, and for keeping their lights and phones and coffee machines on.
It would have been cost-effective to send it out on email and then spend the rest of the day working.
Especially since some of the Republican freshman class didn’t seem to take it to heart….
IF ONLY THEY’D READ THE CONSTITUTION SOONER…. Boy, these guys really are off to a great start, aren’t they?
Two House Republicans have cast votes as members of the 112th Congress, but were not sworn in on Wednesday, a violation of the Constitution on the same day that the GOP had the document read from the podium.
The Republicans, incumbent Pete Sessions of Texas and freshman Mike Fitzpatrick, missed the swearing in, but watched it on television from the Capitol Visitors Center.
“That wasn’t planned. It just worked out that way,” said Fitzpatrick at the time, according to local press on hand, which noted that he “happened to be introducing Texas Congressman Pete Sessions while glad-handing his supporters in the Capitol Visitor Center that he secured for them when the House swearing in began.”
There is no provision in the Constitution for a remote swearing-in by television.
I think the new members of Congress will be watched closely to see if they practice what they preach. It goes with the job. Builds character.
Recurring Nightmare 
Like all those liberal moneybags practice what they preach,right?
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Maybe the Republicans are finding out that ‘change’ is easier said than done.
They fussed so much about Obama’s swearing in that he took the oath of office twice. Two of them didn’t manage to take it once and still voted.
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Nancy-I continue to be amazed at your two faced approach to legalities.
On one hand,you blow off the fact that “a few” illegal aliens might access health care in deference to what you consider the greater good.(It’s probably more like a few hundred thousand.)
Yet,you fly into a fit over this admittedly boneheaded,but not venal violation of House rules by two newcomers.
Selective respect for laws is your hallmark.Do they subscribe to situational ethics at the Unitarian church you attend?
I notice how you employ it here-“klaus”makes an allegation here and you basically
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Nancy-I continue to be amazed at your two faced approach to legalities.
On one hand,you blow off the fact that “a few” illegal aliens might access health care in deference to what you consider the greater good.(It’s probably more like a few hundred thousand.)
Yet,you fly into a fit over this admittedly boneheaded,but not venal violation of House rules by two newcomers.
Selective respect for laws is your hallmark.Do they subscribe to situational ethics at the Unitarian church you attend?
I notice how you employ it here-“klaus”makes an allegation here and you basically go “yessir,yessir,three bags full” while when I make an allegation you start screeching”Sources!Sources!”
Who are you trying to kid?
I know the deal with “klaus”,but it’s still very hypocritical of you.
I should know better than to expect a level playing ground at a weepy left wing site.
Still,I get tired of preaching to the choir because what I consider wrongheaded shouldn’t go unchllenged.
So I make my unwelcome presence here a routine chore.
I don’t think I’m a troll because I try to stay on topic.
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Yes, I actually do go in for situational ethics. I heard years of rants about that in the Pentecostal church, and I’ve thought and lived Fundamentalism enough to know it doesn’t make people better or saner.
When we have perfect people in a perfect world we can be perfectly consistent.
In this one, we have to be humble and try not to be wicked (to paraphrase Jonathan Swift).
Given it’s an imperfect world, I think there’s more harm in denying millions of Americans basic health care than giving care to some undocumented people.
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Just deny it to the illegal aliens.
“Undocumented”appears nowhere in the laws applicable to immigration.Stop trying to mold facts to your liking.
Your logic doesn’t hold up.
A simple paragraph making it necessary to prove one’s legal status is all that’s needed.
The Dems are the ones who,by refusing to include that,created the problem.
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And I’m not flying into a fit over the Repubs and the oath, just pointing out that it was made a big deal of when President Obama took his oath, and these guys didn’t even show up for their own swearing in.
I’m mocking them, actually. I don’t think the oath has magic ritual powers. I do think they should have been more respectful of it.
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I didn’t think it was a big deal with Obama-it wasn’t like it caused the Space Shuttle to crash.
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