Politics

Mike Lee: Everything About Fiscal Cliff Deal a Failure, Only Had Six Minutes to Read It Before Voting

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Fox News

Mike Lee, Utah's junior Republican senator, joined Fox News' Jenna Lee on Happening Now this morning to talk about his op-ed in the Washington Examiner about Washington's dithering along an unsustainable path of spending and debt. In the course of the discussion, Lee explained what he saw was wrong with this week's fiscal cliff deal. "Everything about this bill was a failure," the senator said, "what Congress did, how Congress did it and what Congress didn't do." What Congress didn't do includes reading the bill. Lee says Senators "were given a total of six minutes to read this bill before we had to vote on it," and said lawmakers had to insist on "the opportunity to read legislation before we cast a vote on it," something he promised in his insurgent 2010 campaign (Lee defeated long-time incumbent Republican Bill Bennett to win the Senate seat).

Video below:

h/t to Connor Boyack, who adds that the way the bill was rushed through was "just like with the so-called 'Patriot Act'."

UPDATE: I originally linked to a different, older, Mike Lee op-ed. The op-ed being discussed was in the Washington Examiner not the the Washington Times.