gut;1392774 wrote:Washington is mostly lawyers - of course it's crooked as all get out.

Yes, because having lawyers write laws is such a bad idea.

Devils Advocate;1392788 wrote:Yes, because having lawyers write laws is such a bad idea.

It depends on whether the lawyers have experience. You don't learn a thing in law school. It is just a signaling event for future employers. Look at the original Healthcare bill - a complete mess.

There was actually a provision included that would have required a 1099 for all business-to-business transactions. So if I stopped at the local Exxon after flying back from a business trip I would have needed to get the receipt, the EIN of the owner of the local station and send in a 1099 to the IRS - the IRS would have been swamped by millions (if not billions) of 1099's. Yet it was still in the first submission.

Devils Advocate;1392788 wrote:Yes, because having lawyers write laws is such a bad idea.

Well, we seem to have the wrong lawyers doing it, then, given the track record.

Perhaps having lawyers write them, but non-lawyers vote on them, would be a better way to function. After all, it is good for a lawyer to write a company's disclosures and agreements, but I daresay, I'd prefer to leave the concepts or terms behind them up to the board of directors or the chief officers.

Lawmakers don't write laws. Their aides do. Most lawmakers don't even read the damn bill. They just get briefed on it by their aides. Many times they don't know what all is in it.

I just read an article this week that Washington state had a gun control bill, that in it allowed authorities to annually enter private homes and make surprise searches to make sure all registered guns were secured according to the provisions in the law.

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2020373291_westneat17xml.html

I spoke to two of the sponsors. One, Sen. Adam Kline, D-Seattle, a lawyer who typically is hyper-attuned to civil-liberties issues, said he did not know the bill authorized police searches because he had not read it closely before signing on.
“I made a mistake,” Kline said. “I frankly should have vetted this more closely.”
That lawmakers sponsor bills they haven’t read is common. Still, it’s disappointing on one of this political magnitude. Not counting a long table, it’s only an eight-page bill.
The prime sponsor, Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, also condemned the search provision in his own bill, after I asked him about it. He said Palmer is right that it’s probably unconstitutional.
“I have to admit that shouldn’t be in there,” Murray said.

O-Trap;1392877 wrote:Well, we seem to have the wrong lawyers doing it, then, given the track record.

Perhaps having lawyers write them, but non-lawyers vote on them, would be a better way to function. After all, it is good for a lawyer to write a company's disclosures and agreements, but I daresay, I'd prefer to leave the concepts or terms behind them up to the board of directors or the chief officers.

On the money....There is no real value in crafting the language but in the concepts and execution. The language and structure of the bill could easily be outsourced (and probably often is).

Speaking of Congressional dignity, Nancy, here's another Chicago politician who will learn the art of making license plates for a few years - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/20/jesse-jackson-jr-guilty_n_2724328.html Oh, and his wifey, a city councilperson, is going to learn how to make them too! It's all in the family in the Windy City!!

Hey Jesse, say hello to your other Democrat leaders while you tend to your craft - http://www.wbez.org/story/more-prison-time-blagojevich-illinois-other-convicted-governors-94538?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wbeznews+%28WBEZ+-+City+Room+%28News%29+RSS%29

I'm biased but I think lawyer's get a bad rap as part of being part of a legislative body. Lawyers are trained to do what is in the best interest of their clients and are ethically bound to do so. If the constituents are a legislators client then I think a lawyer is a reasonable profession for training a legislator. (If the real clients aren't constituents but rent-seeking special interests who contributed to their campaign instead...well, in that case I think we're in trouble).

I'd employ a lawyer to draft my patent applications. But I wouldn't hire a lawyer to run my research group. The best lawyer in the world cannot transform bad policy into good legislation.