Vicious Rants of an Angry Yellow Man

A few days ago the GOP voted against a defense bill with 2 significant bills attached to it. While I am for the defense bill and the two riders, I agree that it is wrong to attach laws that may not pass on their own into bills that would pass for certain.

The original defense bill is a no brainer. It raises the pay of the soldiers slightly and provide additional money for the wars. Both parties would have voted for this. The Democrats attached two bills to this. One is to give legal status for children of illegal immigrants who are going to college or are joining the military. This makes sense to me since we don't punish children for what their parents had done. These young people who are bright enough to go to college or brave enough to fight for us, are exactly what we need. The second one is to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell law of the military". I always say that if anyone is willing to fight for us, I don't see why we would want to discriminate against them.

Having said all that, I still don't think that laws that are totally unrelated to each other should be in the same bill just because the majority thinks that it is easier than to pass them individually. I know the GOP did the same in the past when they were in power. I am sure the Democrats complained bitterly then. Each bill should pass on its own merit. There are many times one will see bills that are distasteful passed because they are riding on a bill that both party want to pass as quickly as possible. This is not right. So while the GOP are hypocrits because they had done this before, the Democrats are wrong by trying to pass two bils on the back of a popular bill this time.