4 ms·

Look I'm an Aussie living in Japan, but I know what the EPA is. Someone please tell me this won't pass. I really hope not, and I hope this is a moon shot of a

Look I'm an Aussie living in Japan, but I know what the EPA is. Someone please tell me this won't pass. I really hope not, and I hope this is a moon shot of a bill, as I know how much my original country and my new country follow the US.

kirykl 10y ago
Don't panic yet. There's all sorts of fun bills that get introduced, chances are slim for any one to make it into law There's also this https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/899?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22to+terminate%22%5D%7D&r=5 https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/899?...
- tyingq 10y ago
  I could get potentially get behind this one: https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/25/all-info https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/25/a... "To promote freedom, fairness, and economic opportunity by repealing the income tax and other taxes, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service" Note: 36 co-sponsors, but this has no chance of making it into law either.
  - timecube 10y ago
    "Finally, the bill terminates the national sales tax if the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution (authorizing an income tax) is not repealed within seven years after the enactment of this bill." So if the 16th isn't repealed, and the IRS no longer exists... does the US just stop functioning in 2024?
  - EpicEng 10y ago
    So... How does the fed continue to function?
    - krapp 10y ago
      It wouldn't, which would be the entire point. Reduce government to the size that it can be dragged into the bathroom and drowned in the bathtub, as Grover Norquist eloquently put it, letting state governments and private interests fill the power vacuum.
      - EpicEng 10y ago
        Yeah, who needs interstates, foreign relations, and minority protections anyway?
        krapp 10y ago
        Any authority not explicitly granted by the US Constitution to the Federal government lies first with the people, and second with the states. The Federal government is supposed to be the weakest and least privileged by design. That may not be the most humane, egalitarian or efficient way to run a country at the scale of the US, but to many people that is the way it's supposed to work.
DashRattlesnake 10y ago
This is noise. My understanding is all kinds of crazy bills like this get introduced all the time by backbenchers, but they almost always never make it past the first few procedural steps. The page states: > Mr. Gaetz (for himself, Mr. Massie, Mr. Palazzo, and Mr. Loudermilk) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on Agriculture, Transportation and Infrastructure, and Science, Space, and Technology, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned If it actually gets traction in a committee, then that's a reasonable time to talk about it seriously.
soneil 10y ago
It’s a shame you can’t sort the resolutions by number of Cosponsors, as that’d give a much better idea of which are viable. I don’t have a solid number, but I get the impression a resolution is essentially dead out of the gate, if the number of Cosponsors is <50. It does seem to be an easy metric to get a rough idea of which bills have legs, and which are fluff.
- tmuir 10y ago
  If the information is public, why can't it be scraped and sorted by a third party?
  - lukeschlather 10y ago
    https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/browse https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/browse I don't see a "filter by sponsor count" but you can at least see the number of sponsors. They have "secret sauce" sorting which tries to surface more important bills and presumably uses number of cosponsors as a filter. I usually just look at the bill on Govtrack if I want to know what's going on with it.
  - tyingq 10y ago
    You can...the government even has code to help https://github.com/unitedstates/congress https://github.com/unitedstates/congress
showerst 10y ago
Honestly you never know these days, but it's not a bill from an influential rep, has few cosponsors, and so far has no important movement, so right now it's unlikely. I suspect that the republicans in congress understand that the correct way to get what they want is to have the president order the EPA to roll back tons of regulations, not to literally undo hundreds of thousands at once without review. Something many people (even Americans) don't realize about the US system is that thousands of bills get introduced every session that have zero chance of passing. They're just to score political points with the home crowd.
- marak830 10y ago
  Ahh thanks for the reply.
kerhackernews 10y ago
I can't pass because you'd need 60 votes in the senate (which the Republicans don't have).

kirykl 10y ago

Don't panic yet. There's all sorts of fun bills that get introduced, chances are slim for any one to make it into law There's also this https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/899?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22to+terminate%22%5D%7D&r=5 https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/899?...

tyingq 10y ago
I could get potentially get behind this one: https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/25/all-info https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/25/a... "To promote freedom, fairness, and economic opportunity by repealing the income tax and other taxes, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service" Note: 36 co-sponsors, but this has no chance of making it into law either.
- timecube 10y ago
  "Finally, the bill terminates the national sales tax if the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution (authorizing an income tax) is not repealed within seven years after the enactment of this bill." So if the 16th isn't repealed, and the IRS no longer exists... does the US just stop functioning in 2024?
- EpicEng 10y ago
  So... How does the fed continue to function?
  - krapp 10y ago
    It wouldn't, which would be the entire point. Reduce government to the size that it can be dragged into the bathroom and drowned in the bathtub, as Grover Norquist eloquently put it, letting state governments and private interests fill the power vacuum.
    - EpicEng 10y ago
      Yeah, who needs interstates, foreign relations, and minority protections anyway?
      - krapp 10y ago
        Any authority not explicitly granted by the US Constitution to the Federal government lies first with the people, and second with the states. The Federal government is supposed to be the weakest and least privileged by design. That may not be the most humane, egalitarian or efficient way to run a country at the scale of the US, but to many people that is the way it's supposed to work.

DashRattlesnake 10y ago

This is noise. My understanding is all kinds of crazy bills like this get introduced all the time by backbenchers, but they almost always never make it past the first few procedural steps. The page states: > Mr. Gaetz (for himself, Mr. Massie, Mr. Palazzo, and Mr. Loudermilk) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on Agriculture, Transportation and Infrastructure, and Science, Space, and Technology, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned If it actually gets traction in a committee, then that's a reasonable time to talk about it seriously.

soneil 10y ago

It’s a shame you can’t sort the resolutions by number of Cosponsors, as that’d give a much better idea of which are viable. I don’t have a solid number, but I get the impression a resolution is essentially dead out of the gate, if the number of Cosponsors is <50. It does seem to be an easy metric to get a rough idea of which bills have legs, and which are fluff.

tmuir 10y ago
If the information is public, why can't it be scraped and sorted by a third party?
- lukeschlather 10y ago
  https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/browse https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/browse I don't see a "filter by sponsor count" but you can at least see the number of sponsors. They have "secret sauce" sorting which tries to surface more important bills and presumably uses number of cosponsors as a filter. I usually just look at the bill on Govtrack if I want to know what's going on with it.
- tyingq 10y ago
  You can...the government even has code to help https://github.com/unitedstates/congress https://github.com/unitedstates/congress

showerst 10y ago

Honestly you never know these days, but it's not a bill from an influential rep, has few cosponsors, and so far has no important movement, so right now it's unlikely. I suspect that the republicans in congress understand that the correct way to get what they want is to have the president order the EPA to roll back tons of regulations, not to literally undo hundreds of thousands at once without review. Something many people (even Americans) don't realize about the US system is that thousands of bills get introduced every session that have zero chance of passing. They're just to score political points with the home crowd.

marak830 10y ago
Ahh thanks for the reply.

kerhackernews 10y ago

I can't pass because you'd need 60 votes in the senate (which the Republicans don't have).