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This ”congress is too slow” is an oft-repeated trope but completely wrong.

What people like you don’t understand is that slowness is a feature, not a bug!

The first COVID relief bill was passed in less than a month. Because it had broad support and was urgent!

Laws that have broad support are passed quickly. Laws that lack broad support are passed slowly or not at all.

That how lawmaking should work!



I intentionally made my previous comments as factual as possible.

To editorialize a but, I don't believe Congress will fix this law in the near future, because enough congresscritters and their donors benefit from congresscritters being able to take "gratuities". The present state of American democracy is not healthy enough to keep them accountable for such self-serving decisions.

Until recently, rightly or wrongly, the court system was one of the few remaining checks on such corruption. The Supreme Court just decided the federal courts (at least, it might affect state courts too) will no longer care about much of it.


> Laws that have broad support are passed quickly. Laws that lack broad support are passed slowly or not at all

Not really. COVID relief got passed because of incredible urgency to people’s everyday lives. Reform to stop a corporation from effectively bribing a judge would have plenty of broad support. It just wouldn’t have the urgency. There are a ton of popular ideas that get zero traction in congress.

And still none of this engages with the OP’s broader point which is that it’s sub optimal for courts to substantially change the interpretation of law and then punt to a slow moving congress to follow up. The power in congress is not directly connected to broad popularity, a representative of a tiny fraction of the population is able to halt any and all progress. That’s not efficient lawmaking.


Lots of bills with broad public support don’t even come to a vote let alone become law.

What you meant to say is broad support amongst politicians, assuming that group represents a supermajority of votes in both chambers.


> Laws that have broad support are passed quickly. Laws that lack broad support are passed slowly or not at all.

> That how lawmaking should work!

Yes, agreed!

However, there is another category of laws, those which have very broad support from The People, but don't benefit the politicians (such as, a law restricting bribes).

Such laws will never pass.


This is at odds with studies done on the output of the american political process compared to public opinion

https://act.represent.us/sign/problempoll-fba/


None of those things are what the poster said (slowness), so I don't know why you're bringing them up.

It's more that congress has zero incentive to fix what benefits them, regardless of support.

For instance, the COVID relief bill was a handout to the very folks that bribe them. Obviously they will pass that quickly.

You're confusing correlation (support) with causation (benefits them).


They couldn't even convict for obvious treason. Congress isn't working.


Ehhhh it’s not always the case. Lots of laws have low levels of support (from constituents) but high levels of inertia that prevents them from being repealed. Subsidies are a prime examples. Alpaca subsidies for the Korean War were not repealed until the 1990s. (There’s probably also an important distinction between general support and support from the smaller population of monied classes that skews this further).




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