Why is it legal for congressmen and women to tack on shit to bills that has nothing to do with the bill itself? Sorry my civics class in high school was many moons ago.
the same reason they can pass entire bills without them being read. forget the add on part. Entire bills are mysteries. Add-ons are just their quarterly bonuses from lobbyists now. the bloated bureaucracy is bigger than the people. its supposed to be small centralized government. This is what happens when you give the federal govt this much power in the name of 'save us from ourselves'. the tail wags the dog now. Theres no longer checks in our system of checks and balances.
Unfortunately that kind of crap keeps these A-holes in office. That little "tack on" gave a bunch of people in her or his district jobs, cash, or both. People who benefit like that, so the fool keeps getting re-elected.
A congressman lawyer might say because when a bill about WATER gets something tacked on about OIL that the bill is no longer about WATER its about WATER & OIL. So it now does have to the bill itself. But the real answer is because they make the rules; including the rules about how they make the rules. And being able to do this allows what Tirk and HRUN correctly pointed out.
Hence that without an automatic way to boot these dickheads out ie term limits we are never getting out of this rut
Rules about how they make the rules and only they can change the rules. There will never be term limits because they are the ones that would have to pass something saying there is. I don't think they should get pensions, they should have to purchase their own healthcare, and they should only get 8 years. Plus their salary should be under 60k
