Have you ever seen a media story about some MC ( = member of congress) who is accepting for his district a federal payment that he had voted against? Some folks see that as wildly hypocritical. Those folks argue that the MC should “stick with his principles” and act the same way he voted even though reality is different from what he voted for. Their view is that he voted against it, therefore he shouldn’t take it. The media seems to support this.
But if some MC votes for a tax increase that fails to pass there will be no media story about how he should go ahead and pay that tax anyway. Those same folks do not argue that this guy should “stick with his principles” and act the same way he voted even though reality is different from what he voted for. It is NOT their view that he voted for it, therefore he should pay it. Some folks do not see that as a direct analogy.
Of course, even if a tax does pass, we can’t be sure that Treasury Secretary Geithner will pay it.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Here’s how I see it. A tenet of the democratic process is that once the voting is done we all do what the majority voted to do. So doing what the majority voted to do would not be hypocritical. That being said, if the MC voted against and then stands in front of his/her constituents and says look what I did for you, that’s hypocritical.
ReplyDelete