Midtopia

Midtopia

Friday, August 03, 2007

Ethics bill awaits Bush's signature

The Senate passed the ethics bill 83-14 last night, sending it to President Bush's desk for his signature, completing the end run around Sen. Jim DeMint.

Bush has indicated he might veto it. This makes little sense for two reasons. First, the bills passed with overwhelming majorities (the House vote was 411-8), so a veto would be symbolic, not substantive. Second, even if Bush thinks the bill is worthless, it only affects Congress and candidates (well, and executive branch officials who want to become lobbyists but don't want to have to wait two years to do so). So why does he care?

Never mind that his specific comments echo the "perfect or nothing" attitude of other critics, who attack the bill because it is weaker than the initial Senate version passed in January. Yes, it is; but it is also an improvement over the current rules. Should we throw out those improvements simply because they do not go far enough? Or should we instead view this bill as one step on a longer road?

But the funniest quote is from Mitch McConnell:

"This bill isn't nearly as tough as it would have been on earmarks if Republicans had been involved in writing it," McConnell said.

Uh-huh. Except that when Republicans were in power, they passed nothing. And while one might be tempted to blame Democrats for blocking those efforts, the fact is that Republican opposition was very, very steep as well. And Democratic actions aside, the proposed bill (HR 4975 of the 109th Congress) was weaker than the current bill.

For instance:

1. The ethics rules would only apply to the 11 big spending bills, and they would have sunsetted at the end of the year.

2. Instead of banning gifts from lobbyists, it simply required that such gifts be reported.

3. It didn't increase the wait time before members could become lobbyists.

4. It allowed members to accept privately funded travel.

5. Earmarks needed only be identified, including the sponsoring Congressmember. It didn't include, for instance, the requirement that the list be available 48 hours before the bill is voted on, or that members certify they have no financial interest in the earmark.

So claiming Republicans would have done it better rings just a little hollow.

McConnell does, however, get it right in the end:

"But weighing the good and the bad, many provisions are stronger than current law."

Exactly.

There are plenty of legitimate veto targets out there, notably the bloated water bill -- which, indeed, Bush has promised to veto. But the ethics bill isn't one of them.

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

In the whole scheme of things, it probably makes no difference if he signs it or doesn't. That's because the bill is pretty much meaningless paper work anyway. But I think he SHOULD veto it whether or not it remains veto proof. The President has the bully pulpit to explain in detail why he's vetoeing it and it would call attention to all the flaws in the legislation.

After all, the President has nothing to lose if he truly believes it's a bad piece of legislation and would like to see them do one that actually has some teeth. His approval ratings are low....but the Congress' is even lower. A new Zogby poll has the Congress' approval rating at 3%. That's the lowest EVER for any Congress.

JP5

Sean Aqui said...

The President has the bully pulpit to explain in detail why he's vetoeing it and it would call attention to all the flaws in the legislation.

Except that the criticisms he has expressed are relatively picayune. And he'd be forced to explain why he was totally silent about the need for ethics reforms when there was a Republican majority that proposed even weaker rules than this one.

What really comes across is that if nobody tries reform, that's fine. But if you try it and come up with anything short of ascetic perfection, you'll be elbowed aside by people pointing out how they would have done better -- even though, when they had the chance, they didn't.

Sean Aqui said...

A new Zogby poll has the Congress' approval rating at 3%. That's the lowest EVER for any Congress.

I don't put much stock in polls, and IIRC correctly you don't, either.

For what it's worth, though, that 3 percent approval was on one topic: Iraq -- a topic in which just 24 percent approve of Bush's efforts. Most people are mad at Congress for not pushing hard enough to end the war.

Anonymous said...

I think a similar amount are mad at Congress for NOT supporting a win in Iraq.

JP5