Did Democrats forget how to read?

harry-reid

In an article more befitting of The Onion, Senate Democrats are quickly backtracking on a proposed human trafficking bill–because apparently all of them forgot to read the bill.

While the bill was initially bipartisan and non-controversial–cracking down on human trafficking is something both parties strongly support–Democrats didn’t notice that there were provisions dealing with abortion. Namely, that the proposed “Domestic Trafficking Victims’ Fund” would be prohibited from using taxpayer funds to finance abortion.

“What do you want me to tell you? We missed it!” explained Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, one of the Democrats who didn’t do his homework. “Clearly if it had been front and center, we would have caught it.”

The abortion provision was on page 4.

Contrary to Senator Durbin’s claims, Democrats had a number of chances to spot the abortion language. The bill was approved unanimously by the Senate Judiciary Panel, where Democrats offered amendments–including one on the very same page as the abortion language. And, two weeks later, the the bill was released to all Democratic Senators–who agreed to vote for it as written.

Senator John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas who sponsored the bill, was shocked: “It’s a little perplexing, right? I assume that all of the Democrat senators have highly capable professional staff and that they actually read the bills. And that they advise their senator before they agree to cosponsor and before they agree to vote for it.”

Leave it to Congress to screw things up with incompetence and laziness, even when they agree.