Was the "Stimulus" Bill Read by Anyone?

In January and February, the President said that he wanted a stimulus bill ready for him to sign on Presidents Day. The Democrats in the House wrote the bill. They didn't want any involvement by the Republicans. It came up for a vote and not one Republican voted for the bill. However, they did complain about it. Not the contents, though. They couldn't complain about the contents because it was passed in the late hours and voted on the next day. The bill was over 1,100 pages long.

Representative and Minority Leader, John Boehner held up the bill on the floor of the House. It was 8 inches thick and he dropped it with a loud thud. His complaint was that they were being forced to vote on a bill that NOBODY could have possibly read.

With all of the problems coming up over that bills contents now regarding the AIG Bonuses, they are again saying that NOBODY read the bill before voting on it. I can state unequivocably that one Representative did read the bill. How do I know this? Because he's my Representative. Democrat, Mark Schauer.

Mr. Schauer held public meetings around his district in February. At his stops in Charlotte, Eaton Rapids and a couple of other places, he heard complaints from his constituents that he voted for a nearly trillion dollar spending package that he didn't read. Mr. Schauer claimed at each stop that he did in fact read the entire bill. It was reported in the Detroit News, the Detroit Free Press, the Battle Creek Enquirer and the Lansing State Journal. He was quoted in each of those newspapers that he had read the bill.

On February 17, one day after Presidents Day, and the day that Obama did sign the bill in Denver, Mark Schauer held another meeting. He called these events "Congress on your corner". This meeting was held at the Best Western in Lansing, Michigan. I attended this event. He was again questioned about the bill saying that he could not have read it and again, he reiterated on at least three occasions during that meeting that he did read the entire bill. The people there, which numbered about 100, broke out in laughter at this claim. But he stuck to his claim.

I have tried to do some research on this to find out if any other Congressmen or women were claiming that they read the entire bill before voting on it. I have been unable to find even one that claimed to have read it, other than Mark Schauer.

In the past week, we've learned that the AIG Bonuses were permitted in that bill. Christopher Dodd, Democrat Senator from Connecticut, claimed on March 17 that he didn't have anything to do with that being in the bill, then on March 18, on CNN he told Dana Bash that he did add the bonuses into the final product under pressure from the Obama Administration.

Since Representative Mark Schauer read this bill, and has claimed repeatedly to have read the bill, he had to have known these bonuses were in the bill. Yet, he still voted for it.

Mr. Schauer has a problem of his own creation now. He claims to have read the entire bill, and did vote for it, so he must agree that AIG executives are entitled to those bonuses. If he says that he didn't know it was in the bill, then he's admitting that he lied to his constituents across his district about reading the bill. Finally, if he's against the bonuses, then the question he should have to answer is, "why did you vote for it?" Is he that gutless that he couldn't stand up to his colleagues and bring this to their attention?

What's interesting is that I have found no comments yet from Representative Schauer stating his position on the AIG bonuses. But then, with the liberal press in this state, I'm really not surprised that it's not even being asked of Representative Schauer.

You're welcome to comment.

Brett