FROM THE BUFFALO GAP ROUND UP: www.BuffaloGapNews.com

Many members of Congress are having scandalous love affairs with deceitful, bloated and infectious   legislation called mega-bills. Mega-bills are wrapped in hundreds of pages of legalese to make them look pretty, but underneath are pregnant with fees, fines and regulations. The Simple Bill Amendment would prevent excessively large bills from coming to term by amending the Constitution to limit the length of federal legislation.

The Simple Bill Amendment

"Congress shall make no law in excess of 10,000 words without two thirds approval of both Houses of Congress, and no bill of any length shall be voted for by any member of Congress without that member first reading the bill in full."

The Simple Bill Amendment would limit the wording of most bills to about twice the size of the U.S. Constitution. The Constitution's 4,543 words take about thirty minutes to read, therefore a larger bill under this amendment would take about an hour. In comparison, a legislator could read the Constitution 92 times before finishing the 418,779 words of Obamacare, not including the 20,000 pages of regulations it gave birth to.

Had this amendment already been in place, Obama's Affordable Care Act would never have been invited to the dance floor. At 906 pages, Obamacare would have simply been too obese to wiggle under the limbo stick at the congressional conga line. The same would be true of the Patriot Act's 132 pages, which due to its complicated language is being reinterpreted to allow spying on Americans who aren't even suspected of having committed a crime.

For bills that don't want to go on a 10,000 word diet, there is always the option of getting two thirds of the House and Senate to support it. Nevertheless, the amendment's requirement that legislators take the time to read a bill before voting for it would still stand ‒ a legislator shouldn't rely on the explanations of lobbyists or staffers as to why she should vote for it.

Members of Congress who vote against a bill are not required to read it in full. By skimming, legislators can often ascertain if too much pork or excessive regulation is in a bill. In such cases, a lawmaker could determine if attempting to amend such a bill would be an exercise in futility before running it through the shredder.

Requests to sponsor the Simple Bill Amendment are on the desks of two Republicans from Texas,  Senator Ted Cruz and Congressman Randy Neugebauer. If the amendment survives the ratification process, the time and expense it takes to move bills through Congress should be reduced along with the swollen bags under the eyes of legislators who bother to read the 8000 plus bills introduced into Congress each year.

With bills being limited in size debate should be streamlined, allowing more play time for Democrats and Republicans to golf and eat dinner with lobbyists, which should be reason enough to garner bipartisan support.

The Simple Bill Amendment is designed to help you sort out what your representatives are up to. Shorter bills would help voters to quickly spot flaws and allow them time to sway lawmakers before a bill goes to the floor for a vote. It is time for left-wing and right-wing lawmakers alike to end their infatuation with lengthy and unnecessarily complicated mega-bills.

If you think former Speaker Nancy Pelosi was in a fog when she said legislators should pass a bill “so that you can find out what is in it,” then email or call your legislators today, encouraging them to contact Ted Cruz and Randy Neugebauer to support and co-sponsor the Simple Bill Amendment.  

Lance Hunter Voorhees is a Yahoo! News contributor, actor and former radio talk show host living in Abilene, TX. You can reach him at Lance@LanceVoorhees.com.

Copyright © 2013 by Lance Hunter Voorhees, All rights reserved.

FROM THE BUFFALO GAP ROUND UP: www.BuffaloGapNews.com

There are only two types of Muslims crossing our borders – militant and non-militant. Because  authorities don't have a crystal ball identifying which Muslims are determined or destined to become terrorists, we the people must insist that government do more to “insure domestic tranquility” as required by the U.S. Constitution. We can start with a 99% reduction in U.S. visas and border crossing cards to citizens of Muslim countries.

Both Boston Marathon bombers and all 19 of the 9/11 hijackers came to the U.S. on student, business or tourist visas, some receiving Pell grants, food stamps, Section 8 housing and other taxpayer funded welfare. In essence, these militant Muslims got paid by Uncle Sam for coming to the U.S. to blow up Americans. The mainstream media incorrectly identified such terrorists as “radicals.”

From an Islamic standpoint, radical Muslims target fellow believers while orthodox Muslims target disbelieving infidels who reject the Koran as Holy Scripture.  Acts of terrorism against unbelievers are Koran sanctioned hits and examples of “outer Jihad,” a staple of orthodox Islam.

JIHAD 101

There are two types of Jihad – inner struggle and outer struggle, and every Muslim is called to be a practicing  “mujahid” (one following the path of Jihad). Muslims are collectively called “mujahideen.” One who wishes to “sit back” and wage purely spiritual warfare against sin is an “inner mujahid” while one who also accepts the higher calling of waging physical warfare against non-Muslims is an “outer mujahid.”

Thankfully, most Muslims visiting the U.S. are peaceful and have no desire to kill Americans. These non-militant Muslims simply want to visit relatives, study in our prestigious universities and maybe get their piece of the American pie rather than blowing it up into bloody little pieces.

According to the U.S. Department of State, in 2012 the number of visitors coming from the world's 51 Muslim nations was 813,157. Based on demographics, at least 695,000 were Muslim. A 2013 Pew Research poll found that 7% to 24% of Muslims surveyed by nation were willing to admit their support of terrorism and suicide bombings, which basically confirmed prior polling data.

Assuming no Muslim hid his or her support for terrorism when polled, and using the lower figure of 7% militancy, that translates into 48,650 militant Muslims crossing our borders last year. We should also beware of the tens of thousands of Muslims coming from other nations, including Islamic converts from South of the border.

48,000 plus militant Muslims also doesn't take into account those who will be persuaded to embrace the higher calling of outer Jihad terrorism as did the Boston Marathon bombers, and those who finance such acts. According to orthodox Islam, one donating money to what most would consider terrorist organizations or cells will be blessed as an outer mujahid without having to martyr himself or kill anyone.

Our government should aggressively prosecute these financial terrorists big and small, for it follows that anyone hiring a hit-man is just as much a murderer as the hit-man himself. 

Unfortunately, the U.S. needs to have a policy that discriminates equally against all visiting Muslims by suspending the visas of hundreds of thousands of Muslim nationals and only allowing diplomats and those benefiting American interests to come within our borders. We need to stem the Muslim tide flooding into the U.S. before the wave of jihadi violence turns into an unstoppable Islamic tsunami that could sweep our nation with American blood. To fail to do so would be tantamount to having allowed German Nazi sympathizers to vacation at Coney Island during World War II, with Uncle Sam buying the tickets.

Lance Hunter Voorhees is a Yahoo! News contributor, actor and former radio talk show host living in

Abilene, TX. You can reach him at Lance@LanceVoorhees.com.

Copyright © 2013 by Lance Hunter Voorhees, All rights reserved.