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Comment by crsmithdev | Hacker News Reader

Zero confidence that any part of the US congress is even remotely capable of producing a bill for this that isn't a complete disaster. Unfortunately, they'll probably try anyway.

One of those moments I'm glad that our government is so broken at this point that it can't really drive significant change.

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Congress produces pretty decent bills when they are bipartisan. Most recent example is the criminal justice reform.

This bill is, or at least appears to be, bipartisan.

> U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) and Deb Fischer (R-NE) have introduced the Deceptive Experiences To Online Users Reduction (DETOUR) Act.

https://www.scribd.com/document/405606873/Detour-Act-Final

And I feel better knowing that these two representatives haven’t been in the news for their views or for scandals. I’ll have to read the bill to know better.

Criminal Justice Reform bill is the masterwork of Jared Kushner. Kushner is the reason why it exists at all, so it wasn't really "congress" that "produced" it.

http://time.com/5486560/prison-reform-jared-kushner-kim-kard...

Did Kushner write it?

We'll never know. But he _made them_ pass it, that much is certain.

This was just on the front page of HN a day ago:

A bipartisanship bill that would not allow the IRS to offer free tax filings:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19613725

The Defense of Marriage Act was also bipartisan:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_of_Marriage_Act

COPA was bipartisan:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_Online_Protection_Act

PATRIOT Act was also essentially bipartisan (while most opposition was from Dems, more Dems voted for it than against it).

They were afraid of being labelled unpatriotic. This was during the time where Senator Max Cleland was attacked for being "unpatriotic" even though he lost three limbs in the Vietnam War

Fundamentally, it's about the fear of not getting re-elected.

And I would dare say that it's probably one of the biggest contributors to all legislation.

> Zero confidence that any part of the US congress is even remotely capable of producing a bill for this that isn't a complete disaster.

Literally applies to every sector.

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