With the first bill he signed, President Obama broke a promise to allow five days of public comment before signing non-emergency legislation. It was an almost gratuitous flouting of a fairly tame promise, but it set the stage for a presidency full of good-government talk unmatched by deeds.
House Republicans are imitating Obama on this score of publicly posting legislation. Paul Blumenthal at the Sunlight Foundation reports:
Two weeks ago the House of Representatives violated a pledge made by Speaker John Boehner to provide a 72 hour window for all legislation to be viewed by the public before it is brought to the floor for debate by voting on a bill to defund National Public Radio. Today, the House majority is again violating that pledge by voting on the Government Shutdown Prevention Act.
