Kirk Watson: “today, the House Republican leadership is clearing up a mess they made three weeks ago. On November 20, 2004, House…”

“today, the House Republican leadership is clearing up a mess they made three weeks ago. On November 20, 2004, House Republicans sent to the floor another unwieldy omnibus spending bill, 2 months late and billions of dollars short for America's education, health care and homeland security needs. It was not until the last moment that we discovered that Republicans had slipped in a hidden provision that would have let Congress read the tax returns of any individual American taxpayer and reveal the contents to the public, with no penalties for committing such a flagrant violation of privacy. Republicans quickly and vocally distanced themselves from this provision, and I have no doubt that my Republican colleagues were as ashamed as I was that this provision almost became law. But where the Republican leadership continues to fail is by claiming this is an isolated mistake. The ugly truth is that it is a symptom of a legislative process that is broken. In a democracy, the legislative process relies on free and open exchange of ideas.”