Does anyone wonder if politicians are  sneaky and underhanded?  That’s a rhetorical question…

Let’s first look at a hypothetical situation.  Imagine that you went into a car dealership to buy a brand new car.  You haggled back and forth with the salesman to get the deal you wanted on that shiny new car, optioned just the way you wanted it, and with the right finance terms.  Just as you were about to sign the paperwork the salesman says to you, “You’re getting quite the deal on your new leather sofa”.  What?!?!

This is exactly how our elected officials operate!  This no joke. You can look up the history of California Assembly Bill 156 in 2015-2016 to see this process in action.

Assembly Bill 156 started as a Global Warming bill to subsidize communities affected by the Climate Change Act of 2006. The bill was introduced in Jan 2015 and started through the legislative process. AB-156 passed through several committees, in both the assembly and the senate, with minor amendments to get the approval of the committees.   Supposedly a bill as it passes through each committee, is scrutinized, discussed, amended as necessary to obtain consensus, approved, and then moved on to the next committee.  In August after all the WORK on the bill (read, money spent on the approval process), ALL, and I do mean ALL, of the wording in the bill was lined out and new words were substituted. Every single word was replaced!  Even though all the original words were replaced, this action was TREATED AS JUST AN AMENDMENT and all the previous committee reviews were considered completed and approved.  This hijacked bill was up for consideration as a new law.  What did the AB-156 become you might ask?  It is now all about ammunition purchases.   Global warming and ammunition purchases, yeah they’re as similar to each other as a car is to a sofa!

Here’s just the title straight from the current version compared to bill as it was introduced in Janunary 2015.

“AB 156, as amended, Perea McCarty. California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006: disadvantaged communities. Ammunition.”

There are all sorts of expressions such as pulling the wool over someone’s eyes.  Deceitful is the best word to describe how politicians operate.  And today I’m not talking about Hillybob and all her “short circuits”.  Every California State senator and assemblyman is paid $100,000 each year for these shenanigans.  What a country!

Here’s a link to the bill if you want to see for yourself what PAID politicians are doing for (to?) you.

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/15-16/bill/asm/ab_0151-0200/ab_156_bill_20160504_amended_sen_v91.pdf

There’s a term for all this.  BOHICA!  Bend Over, Here It Comes Again…