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CT - The Committee of the Whole on The State of the Union · Plausibly Live - The Dave Bowman Show Podcast

0:01
Shake it. I host a welcome Washington
0:03
fundraiser for you, my Law Firm on K Street.
0:06
Absolutely, at $500 a head, you could pick up 20, 25 Grand tops,
0:12
get started. And how much of that are you
0:17
going to get? Don't you come on down the road.
0:21
I'll Billy's from 500 an hour. Whenever I take it to lunch,
0:25
this is plausibly live in the big scheme of things. when you
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sit down, and you actually think about, How many people does it
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actually take in the United States of America to pass and
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enact a law? Which is binding upon the
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entirety of We, the People now, you may say to yourself day,
0:53
that's a pretty obvious question.
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Not that complicated. It's simple math, right?
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And Theory requires half of the Congress or a majority of the
1:04
Congress, 218 plus half the Senate 51 and one president. 270
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people. If you were to divide that out
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you would find that that's point 0 0, 0 0, 76 percent of We the
1:29
People a mirror 270 people pass a law which then becomes finding
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on the rest of us. Everybody else.
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That's that's the way it works in our heads anyway.
1:44
Reality though can be a little bit different.
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What do I mean Congress? Specifically, the House of
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Representatives has Operational rules.
2:01
A few weeks ago, we saw a really good example of this when we
2:04
were electing a speaker of the house and as you will recall
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there, technically was no speaker.
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Since there is no speaker, Congress cannot technically sit
2:19
as Congress. but they have a rule in which Congress can meet
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sit conduct business not as Congress, but as quote, the
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committee of the whole of the State of the Union, Essentially
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what that means is Congress is in session.
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But we're in a committee, not Congress, just because the
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committee happens to consist of every member of Congress doesn't
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mean it's not a committee, the rules change, definitions change
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and ultimately the definition of what is a quorum changes?
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Stay with me here. The committee of the whole by
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rule can be any number between 100 and 435 members of Congress
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as long as there's a hundred of them.
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They're technically it is the committee of the whole And
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because the way the rules are written, you don't actually have
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to be there. If you've ever watch C-SPAN,
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you'll know that you order speeches are given between
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between these committee meetings.
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And that's congress with a speaker, who is designated by
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the speaker is conducting Congressional business but as a
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committee, not as Congress. And so the they could literally
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have almost no one there but because of the way, the rules
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are written. The House of Representatives is
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always considered to be in session unless it has
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technically adjourned. So, unless the speaker has said
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this session of Congress is adjourned backpack on the gavel
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Congress is in session. Meaning that the committee of
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the whole can meet virtually 24/7 But by rule, they have to
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have a minimum of 100 to have a quorum. which means that since
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the committee of the whole can take up bills, Didn't know that
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did you? The majority then is assuming
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they have a hundred, there would be 51. 51 plus 51 Senators plus
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1, president. Now you're down to 103 people.
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Or. Zero point, zero, zero, zero,
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zero to nine percent of We the People passing enacting a law
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now to be clear. That's not the expected or
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normal process for major legislation.
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But like I said, the house rules are that there are always in
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session devolving into the committee of the whole in order
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to conduct business with less than the full quorum.
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By the way, those of you paying cause of tension, will have
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noticed that speaker McCarthy was not elected with a full
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majority of Congress. He was elected with a full
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majority of the committee of the whole less than was required for
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the for the Congress. Also by rule, I don't know if
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you knew this or not. It is the committee of the whole
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sitting is the Congress sitting as the committee of a whole that
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here's the State of the Union Address, not congress, not
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Congress sitting as Congress. They are sitting as the
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committee of the whole. Why does that matter?
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Because the rules change. and certain behaviors that are not
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acceptable during Congress are acceptable during the committee
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of the whole It's stupid but it's true rules are far more
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relaxed almost every vote taken under the committee of the whole
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is a Voice vote. It is not record it.
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So, how many of the speak the designated speaker, who is
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designated by the Speaker of the House for the committee of the
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whole and is usually someone who is not either on a committee or
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chair of a committee is then You know, calls for a Voice vote on
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the matter at hand. How many in all in favor say,
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aye. Aye all opposed say no.
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And it takes 25 members of the committee of the whole to demand
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an actual recorded vote. It's a slippery slope, but it's
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like, most people don't know this stuff.
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Most people have no clue that. This is how these things can be
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done. Now again, they're not always
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done this way. But they can be.
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In theory as few as 103, people could enact a law binding on all
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the people United States in practicality.
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Amir 270. People can enact that law which
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is binding on all the people United States.
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But in any case, either case, it's less than one millionth of
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a percent of the people. Deciding the law for everyone
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else. And if you'll recall last week,
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we talked about the fact that Brutus was saying that the
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proposed Congress was quote way too small unquote. and that that
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few number of legislators was easily subjected to corruption
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and to influence I would submit to you that at the time that he
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wrote that he was writing, it specifically about the House of
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Representatives, but post 17, the Seventeenth Amendment Kind
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of applies to both now, doesn't it?
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And so while the absolute minimum is theoretical 103, what
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happens if there's some no Shenanigans or corruption or
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influence going on in Congress? And a mere hundred and three
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people decide what the law is, for 355 million Americans.
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In the big scheme of things, there are two types of
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government. What do I mean?
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I don't mean two types of government in the sense of, you
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know, democracy dictatorship. That's not what I'm talking
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about. I'm talking about is the way
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government works. There are two types of workings
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in a government. The government, regardless of
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what it is, either has the consent of the governed.
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The people have agreed that this is the way we want to be
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governed. Could be a dictatorship, could
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be a monarchy. Could be a pure democracy.
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But in any case, the people have agreed that this is how we want
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to do this. The other way, is a government
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that is forced upon us. Brutus talks about the fact in
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his fourth letter that there can be no free government regardless
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of whether it's force or consensual.
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Where the people are not possessed of the power of making
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laws by which they are governed, either in their own persons or
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substituted in their Stead. He then postulates that the
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representative form of government is really the only
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practical solution, the democracies, the pure democracy
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doesn't work and everybody's everybody pretty much agrees
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with this the experience of the Athenian.
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Democracies proved that. While, it's a fascinating ideal.
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It's not really practical particularly in anything more
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than a few thousand people of a society. the representative
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format is the only practical solution and this is why he
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says, it is so important that the representation be so
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constituted as to be capable of understanding the true interests
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of the society, for which it acts and so disposed as to
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preserve the good and happiness of the people to its ultimate
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end. So a lot of words, but what he's
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essentially saying is, if this government, if these, if these
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Representatives aren't truly representative representative,
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their it's impossible for them to actually govern with consent.
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Unless we, the people agree that we're just going to accept,
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whatever the small number of people says and abide by it. he
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said with raised eyebrows, Brutus continues in Brutus
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number for his concept and Brutus three.
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And he kind of goes more into depth about these two issues
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that he has with the size of the, of the Congress, the
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representation. And again, this was written pre
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17th amendment. I think you could lift all of
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this now. And instead of just saying the
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House of Representatives, you could say, the house and the set
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to both of this. He does not believe that the
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Congress as formatted in any way, shape, or form can
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represent the actual interest of the people what?
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Because it is not truly representative of the people.
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Now, we hear a lot. In fact, there are articles out
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there today about how diverse the 118th Congress is And they
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will give you a lot of numbers about, you know, there's so many
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people. This there's so many people that
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and and we've never had this many of that in the Congress
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before. But is it truly representative
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of the actualities of We, the People How far down this list
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you want to go? Sex, men, and women.
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How many men are in the country? How many women are in the
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country? I think it's somewhere around
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50%. Each might be 51/49 but his
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Congress 51 percent, male 49 percent female, So is it truly
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representative, what about race? Now you get into all kinds of
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issues. And then, when you start
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subdividing race in two cultures, I mean, how far down
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this list you want to go? What percentage of the nation is
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a don't know, left-handed. Should that not be represented
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represented in the in the Congress economic status?
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How many people are poor? How many people are rich?
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How many people are middle class?
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How many people are dependent cluster, should that not be
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taken into account? and in the 435 members of
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Congress, that we have now, I don't think you got to go very
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far to say, it is not representative of the people as
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a whole. despite the New York Times article about how diverse
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Congress is, When you have a Congress that is not truly
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representative of the people. And actually, we could say 535
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because you can apply this to the Senate when it's not truly
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representative of the people and Brutus has a long Soliloquy in
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his letter about what kind of people are running for congress.
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And I don't think you would have any argument about the fact that
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they are Artful and deceitful people who are more interested
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in power than they are in public service.
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But we'll leave that aside for another day.
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When you have this many people, this few number of people, there
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that are not truly representative of the people.
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You lose confidence in their ability to actually govern you
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lose confidence in their ability to actually pass laws that meet
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the best interests of the people.
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And in fact, how often do we have that complaint today?
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I know it's an aside, I know it's a it's a political issue.
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I try to keep political issues out of constitution Thursday,
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but let's just talk about your crane for a second.
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How many times has Congress approved money going to Ukraine?
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Do you think that the vast majority of the country if it
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were properly representative represented in Congress?
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Would agree with that. I personally don't think we
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would, but it would be interesting to find out instead
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of being told that we that this is our number one priority. when
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you turn to the issue of corruption and influence with
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this small, number of people, brutus's absolutely Just
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convinced that this small number of people can be easily
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corrupted and easily influenced. I love that he uses the word
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influence because the word the usage of, it actually means
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bribed. You can bribe these people off.
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The ability to bribe a small number of people to do what you
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want is increased exponentially. As that group, gets bigger, you
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see what I'm saying? Today.
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How many people do you actually have to buy off to get a law
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passed? If you were going to do it that
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way? I'm not saying this happens all
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the time. I'm not pointing finger and
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accusing Congress. That would be saying if I wanted
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to buy off enough congresspeople to get my law passed.
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How many would I actually have to buy off?
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Well, the bare minimum would be 103.
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The maximum would be 270. 269 because you kind of subtract out
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the president. Although you could buy off a
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president to, I guess, if you wanted to 270 out of 355 million
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is not very much and if you've got enough money to buy enough,
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congresspeople probably pretty easy and you probably don't even
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have to buy off that many, because, as Brutus is explains,
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these people are very Adept at speaking and convincing people
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to go along with them. So you buy off the most powerful
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of them sorry, corrupting influence the most powerful of
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them. And eventually you get your bill
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passed. Pretty easily. it's not that
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difficult to do, it's not that Costly at least compared to half
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the buying off with what if Congress was a thousand people
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you'd have to buy off 500 or so. And his argument is, the more
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people you have, the more difficult, it is for those who
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are trying to corrupt and influence Congress to accomplish
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their goal, its it exponentially complicates it because you
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number one, you got more money or more whatever it is, you're
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giving them. But number two, Now, you're more
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likely to have people standing in your way.
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Go back to the speaker election a few weeks ago. 46 people
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standing in the way we're able to hold that whole thing up.
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I know people saying, well this was bad.
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I don't think was bad, I think was good.
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I think it was indicative of how our Congress should be working.
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At the same time, if Congress was twice the size, it was how
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many more people could be standing in the way of
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legislation or actions that might not be in the best
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interest of the people as represented.
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Hey, go back to Brutus opened this fourth letter.
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With these words, there can be no free government where the
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people are not possessed of the power of making the laws by
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which they are governed, either in their own persons or by
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others substituted in their Stead.
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In a nation where so few people. speak for We, the People Do we
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actually possess the power to make our own laws?
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Do we actually have that power to make our own laws if you call
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up your congressman and said hey we need a law about this?
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Here's, you know, 500 of us. Together saying we need a law
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about this. Do you think your Congressman
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listens? Think they care or
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congresswoman? Do we actually possess the power
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to make our own laws today or ever?
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Is our Congress subject to corruption and influence today?
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That sounds like a ridiculous question, doesn't it?
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They will, of course, tell you, that's ridiculous.
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No Nancy Pelosi would say But we got some serious questions.
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That shake our confidence about our Congress has susceptibility
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to corruption and influence, don't we?
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You don't have to look very far in the old Google machine there
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to start finding event after event after event after event.
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Of congressional influencing scandals.
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Moreover. We actually have a legal process
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known as lobbying. We're powerful well-connected
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people can hire powerful, well-connected attorneys.
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To go and suggest to Congress, people what they should and
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shouldn't support. Is that representation of the
19:46
people as a whole or is that representation of the lobbyists?
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And one last thought. Who controls the election laws
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for congress, who decides how Congress is elected?
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Bueller, Bueller, anyone. Oh yeah, Congress does the
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Constitution puts the power of how elections for Congress is
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are controlled in the hands of Kyle?
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so, if Congress is making its own laws for how it is elected,
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Who's really in charge? And are we?
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Consenting to this. Or have we just been compelled
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to accept it was Brutus, right?