Show Us The Bill

Photos From The Show Us The Bill Rally

450 people turned out for the ShowUsTheBill/PatientsFirst Rally this weekend, despite the threat of rain (and a few drops that did indeed mar the opening).

Mark from Keyboard Militia took some photographs, and Jim Hoft from GatewayPundit has a roundup. The indispensable RebootCongress has videos and pictures of some speakers, as well as after interviews of Dr. Randy Tobler and of course, the folks from Americans for Prosperity helped promote the event through the PatientsFirst project.

Thanks go out to Fred Sauer, who came up with the idea, and asked others to help.  This event was the first of many grassroots events springing up around the country demanding our legislators read the legislation before they vote on it.

If you want to do a little citizen activism yourself, consider calling Claire McCaskill and politely asking she promise to read the healthcare legislation before she votes on it.  If her staff tells you it hasn't been written, ask them if they'll pledge to actually post it online and read it before agreeing to vote on it. 

Remind them they did not read the stimulus bill, and the House members didn't read cap and trade.

Her St Louis office number is (314)-367-1364

Are We Democrats Or Republicans?

Show Us The Bill is not a formal organization.  It's currently a group of Missourians who are shocked to find out that no one in Congress reads what they vote on. 

We are members of all parties and none, but this effort is designed with one goal in mind - get our elected representatives to show us the bills they vote on and to pledge to read them prior to voting on them.

It is the height of arrogance to argue on debate on important national issues when you don't even know the text of the bills you're arguing about. We're convinced that if more regular citizens from both parties demanded this simple task, the laws would be better and the lawmakers would be held accountable.

We support any politician who pledges to read the bill, regardless of party.  We support Democrat Brian Baird's bill in the house to post all legislation online 72 hours prior to it being discussed on the House floor.  And we expect President Obama, and all future presidents to honor the commitment to post the full text of completed bills on a government website prior to the president signing the legislation.

The technology is there and the process is simple. We only need the willpower.

Transparency

Do you sign loan papers without reading them?  Wills?  Business contracts?  No one who plans to be successful signs anything blindly, but this is exactly what our Congressional Representatives do on nearly every bill they vote on.

Despite paid staff who presumably are tasked with reading bills and making notes, bills aren't read before they're voted on.

The Stimulus bill, a $787 billion boondoggle, was released to the House and Senate mere hours before they voted on it - and yet President Obama didn't sign the bill until five days later.

What kind of nuthouse are they running on Capitol Hill? 

This site is the clearinghouse for Show Us The Bill, where everyday citizens step forward and demand our elected officials read the laws they enact.

Starting with healthcare.