This is negotiation. It's an adversarial system. The proponents of this bill know they are not going to get everything they ask for. The point is to stake out a

This is negotiation. It's an adversarial system. The proponents of this bill know they are not going to get everything they ask for. The point is to stake out a position very far toward what they want so as to force opponents of this bill to just whittle it down. If they proposed something saner and lost, they'd lose completely. But propose something insane and lose and you still might win something.