Why doesn’t Congress pass an amendment to the Constitution that just effectively says ‘Congress shall pass no laws that they themselves are exempt from’?

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Why doesn’t Congress pass an amendment to the Constitution that just effectively says ‘Congress shall pass no laws that they themselves are exempt from’?

Comments

  1. AdmirableAd7753 Avatar

    Whats in it for them?

    And it takes more than a congressional vote to add an amendment to the constitution.

  2. HesusHrist Avatar

    research on how passing amendments work

  3. Pure-Log4013 Avatar

    God we need better civics education in schools

  4. welding_guy_fromLI Avatar

    There needs to be a constitutional convention first

  5. Shinagami091 Avatar

    Well let’s see. The people who make the rules aren’t likely to limit their own power. There’s a clear bipartisan effort to remove Congress members ability to trade stocks that even Trump supports and yet that will never happen.

    Would you go up to your boss and tell them to cut your pay? Why would you?

  6. Wooden-Glove-2384 Avatar

    because that’s their motivation to be in Congress instead of working honest jobs

  7. eskimospy212 Avatar

    Our current problem is not that we lack laws that make these sorts of things illegal, it’s that those laws are not enforced.

  8. Shrikeangel Avatar

    Honestly – because things are so partisan there is little reason to believe we will ever see an amendment passed again. 

  9. centaurquestions Avatar

    What laws are they exempt from currently?

  10. SafetyMan35 Avatar

    Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha….

    Oh, you were serious.

    Congress would never do anything to shoot themselves in the foot.

    They can’t even follow the laws they have passed including oversight.

  11. ppppfbsc Avatar

    are you kidding, i do not want to lose my nancy pelosi stock trading tool.

    Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi Stock Tracker – StockScan

  12. Minimum-Major248 Avatar

    Then they’d have to live by the same laws we do.

  13. Axikten Avatar

    You’re joking, right?

  14. Raspberries-Are-Evil Avatar

    Sweet child….

    This is why they cut civics education from schools. So the resistance would be this sad.

  15. Large-Investment-381 Avatar

    Alexa, how are amendments to the Constitution passed?

  16. imnota4 Avatar
    1. Because that’s not how bills work
    2. People need to stop living in this fantasy world where the government does good things for good reasons.

    Genuinely. Why the hell would congress do that? What do they gain from that? Genuinely, I wanna know the answer to that. Why would people with power, willingly give up that power once it has been given to them?

    Don’t give me some ideological purity reason like “Well they’d do it because it’s the right thing to do”. No they won’t. It’s absurd to insist that the government will do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do. That’s literally never happened, there has always been some sort of personal benefit on their end to doing it.

    So tell me, what are you going to give congress to make them agree to pass that kind of law? What power would you give up?

    The underlying issue here is that we’ve been empowering the federal government more and more over the last 150 years or so, and now it’s backfiring and we want ways to take that power back without actually taking it back, but you can’t do that. Power given is power that they will retain until you take it back by force.

    We gave congress the power to pass laws that they are exempt from, and there is no taking that power back. Our ancestors fucked up, and we’re still fucking up because we’re still advocating for giving the federal government even more power.

    Until people come to terms with this fact, and accept that there’s no way to limit the power of the feds in the way you want without a blanket weakening of all of their power in general, then nothing will be done.

  17. RUFUSDESIGN Avatar

    Addicts don’t cut themselves off.

  18. Accurize2 Avatar

    Because that wouldn’t serve their needs and the populous is too apathetic to force this issue.

  19. GrimSpirit42 Avatar

    You have two wolves and one chicken voting on what’s for dinner. That’s democracy.

  20. emeraldweaponry Avatar

    Why would you give up power that benefits you?

  21. WhiskeyTangoFoxy Avatar

    Because there are some laws that make sense them being exempt from. Like detaining them in route to vote on crucial legislation. State republican governor could hold the democratic senators on suspicion of blah until after the vote.

  22. dreamingforward Avatar

    Everyone is equal under the law already. What does this do?

  23. garrettj100 Avatar

    Why?

    Because then they couldn’t pass laws that exempted themselves.

    Christ, try to keep up.

  24. StudySwami Avatar

    There’s actually a legitimate reason for this. You may not agree, but here it goes:

    Congress may be less inclined to pass difficult laws if they are affected too, even if the laws are thought by the majority to be for the betterment of the country. A big one was affirmative action laws. By exempting Congress from having to comply you can get such a law, distasteful to many, passed.

  25. R1CHARDCRANIUM Avatar

    There is nothing simple about amending the constitution. In 250 years, there have only been 27 of them and ten of them came at once.

    You’re asking congresspeople to propose an amendment that directly impacts them negatively and then you’re asking the legislators and governors of 50 states to ratify an amendment that directly impacts them if they have aspirations to congress.

  26. Furdinand Avatar

    Because voters don’t care enough about it. If they did, more people would show up to candidate forums, vote in primary and general elections, and follow politics in odd numbered years.

  27. IiASHLEYiI Avatar

    Do you honestly think the people in power would pass legislation to limit their own power? Especially in a country as greedy and corrupt as the US?

    I’m not saying it’s a bad idea, an amendment like that is something we could all benefit from. But we’d have to fight to get it into effect. And I’m all for it.
    Someone with better connections and more charisma than me – make it happen.

  28. Kruse Avatar

    Why don’t people just stop breaking the law? Simple! Problem solved!

  29. austinvf82 Avatar

    Do they not teach government in high school anymore? Like even basic stuff. Checks and balances, how a bill becomes law, 3 branches of the government, how to do your taxes. None of that?

  30. CerddwrRhyddid Avatar
  31. XIII_THIRTEEN Avatar

    To answer a more interesting question, we really need Congress to pass a law or amendment making it so the President does not have criminal immunity. The damage that SC ruling has/will do even after the orange man dies or gets deposed is indescribable. Not to mention the ruling flies in complete opposition to the founding principles of this country.

  32. wossquee Avatar

    Why doesn’t Congress pass an amendment to the Constitution that just effectively says ‘People are not allowed to ask stupid AskReddit questions’?

  33. techm00 Avatar

    you are basing your question on politicians being good honourable people who are totally not in it to grift a slice of pie they were not entitled to