4 ms·
Is there a more bizarre legislative process anywhere in the world? The US Congress is practically able to pass only a single giant bill every year. To work aro
by pavlov 1y ago
Is there a more bizarre legislative process anywhere in the world?
The US Congress is practically able to pass only a single giant bill every year. To work around its own deficit rules, these bills are packed with taxation time bombs where rules have expiration dates or delayed starts several years in the future.
Then, if Congress doesn’t get around to defusing its own time bombs, you get situations like this R&D expensing fiasco where American businesses and employees pay the price. Unless the bomb is hopefully retroactively cancelled, like happened now.
On top of this madness, there’s an executive branch operating like a runaway autocracy, producing a flood of executive orders that intentionally flaunt laws and even target specific private entities (e.g. Trump’s attacks on law firms that worked for his opponents, and universities he doesn’t like).
How long can a nation function like this? If the bond market loses faith in this process, there could be mayhem. Will be interesting to see if the passage of BBB impacts US debt when markets open again on Monday.
- kevin_thibedeau 1y agoCongress has transformed from a body of civil servants working toward a common goal to a bunch of solipsist narcissists happy to burn everything down for more face time in the beltway media echo chamber.
- kzrdude 1y agoIt's a year of very rapid change. I just realized the other week (naively) that we (non-US) should really be bracing even more than we are. For shocks to come, economical, cultural as a reaction to the slide towards an authoritarian presidential system. It's not a time to be watching though, but to act.
- jayd16 1y agoThe unserious and corrupt are consistently rewarded with re-election. I really have no idea how we move forward.
- Sammi 1y agoGet rid of the First Past the Post voting system. Almost all the brokenness of US politics is downstream from FPTP. It incentivates divisiveness instead of collaboration and consensus, which a better voting system would.
- sn9 1y agoDivisiveness as well as strategically voting for the "lesser of two evils" compared to voting for your ideal choice. It should honestly be banned for any election and primary across the country and be replaced with approval voting or Condorcet methods or something else that are strict improvements.
- andrekandre 1y ago> taxation time bombs where rules have expiration dates or delayed starts several years in the future. > ... > Unless the bomb is hopefully retroactively cancelled, like happened now. this is by design: the opposition usually get into power in midterms and next presidency can swap parties, so if there is a bad provision its moved out to "explode" when they aren't in power and hurt the oppositions continuing chances as an example, the cuts to medicade don't start until right after the next midterms (which most are expecting to strongly favor democrats) [0] [0] https://ccf.georgetown.edu/2025/05/27/medicaid-and-chip-cuts-in-the-house-passed-reconciliation-bill-explained/ https://ccf.georgetown.edu/2025/05/27/medicaid-and-chip-cuts...