Max Baucus: “I wish we were here on the Senate floor discussing and debating the important issues that are in the…”

“I wish we were here on the Senate floor discussing and debating the important issues that are in the Commerce-Justice-State Appropriations bill. I strenuously object to the fact that we are not doing just that. This bill will not be debated on the floor today, or probably any day this session. In fact, we will likely have no opportunity to debate this bill, to offer amendments, or to vote on it. The plan is to wrap it up in an omnibus bill of some sort as the session ends. This is no way to legislate. This is no way to lead. This goes against the very basis of what our country is about. Our Government is based on principles of transparency and openness. Our processes are supposed to be open to public scrutiny and comment. Robert Hutchins, former President of the University of Chicago and one of the most esteemed American intellectuals of the 20th century, wrote: The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment. Senators have been disenfranchised because of a distorted legislative process. And that means the American citizens who sent us to represent them have also been disenfranchised. I object to how this Congress is being run.”