Crisis Theater

Now that the so-called "debt deal" has been enacted, and the alleged crisis has been averted, I wonder what is really in the legislation?

For instance, I saw on Twitter yesterday that members of Congress who voted "no" would not be allowed to participate in the joint committee the law establishes to determine further action. I asked one of the people who posted that claim, and that person believed that prohibition was actually in the law. (If it is, wouldn't that be ex post facto, because the law would in effect be punishing an act committed before it were enacted?)

Remember the analysts and contributors on the news programs saying that even if a deal was reached by Sunday, it would take a lot of work to get it written into legislation by Tuesday? Never mind that legalese is probably one of the larger problems with our laws. I'm beginning to think that this legislation was already written and sitting in someone's desk drawer, just waiting to be introduced. When the PPACA (Obamacare) theater--er, debate was going on, Rush Limbaugh speculated that act was the Hillary Clinton plan that had been sitting in Steny Hoyer's desk for 15 years. It could be that those analysts' claims were red herrings.

I hope some people (who can read legalese better than I can) analyze this legislation, and we see the reports on Twitter. What is really contained in there?