> You’re trading votes and not every constituency gives a shit about the same issues.
But this is precisely how democracy fails. You have a bill that nobody wants except a special interest group in e.g. Pennsylvania. It can't pass on its own because it's not worth the candle -- Pennsylvania wouldn't even pass it themselves at the state level. But if the federal representative from Pennsylvania can get that bill funded with federal money then they get reelected in Pennsylvania. And likewise for some other bad bills from Florida and Virginia and Arkansas.
But then instead of all those bills failing as they deserve to, they get combined together and all pass, because the constituents in any given district are paying more attention to whether their boondoggle gets passed than whether their representative can prevent some other one.
> Pennsylvania wouldn't even pass it themselves at the state level. But if the federal representative from Pennsylvania can get that bill funded with federal money then they get reelected in Pennsylvania
This is an article about the Pennsylvania legislature.
> instead of all those bills failing as they deserve to, they get combined together and all pass, because the constituents in any given district are paying more attention to whether their boondoggle gets passed
Yea. If something has concentrated approval and no concentrated opposition, it passes. That’s democracy. You seem to be criticising rushed legislation more than omnibussing.
> This is an article about the Pennsylvania legislature.
This is an article about the Pennsylvania legislature wrangling over federal funding. And the principle is generic, and the same dynamic applies to districts within a state and state legislatures. If a bill can't pass on its own, why should it pass?
> If something has concentrated approval and no concentrated opposition, it passes. That’s democracy.
That's the opposite of democracy. If 2% of the population is strongly in favor of something and 98% of the population is weakly opposed and you put it up for a vote, it fails. Which it's supposed to, because "take a pile of money from 98% of people and give it to 2% of people with political connections" is a bad bill.
> You seem to be criticising rushed legislation more than omnibussing.
What does being rushed have to do with it? The perverse incentives (horse trading otherwise-unpassable bills for each other; disguising votes for bad legislation as "we had to vote for the omnibus") created by omnibussing are the same regardless of how long you take to deliberate.
> More common: 2% is strongly in favour and 98% don’t care.
"Don't care" is the focus and time thing. Given adequate consideration, anyone would have at least a weak preference for any given policy choice.
> You described to what “ the constituents in any given district are paying more attention.” That’s a function of focus and time.
It's a function of focus and time on the part of the electorate. Legislators can take more time to do something by simply delaying action until the question can be thoroughly debated. Voters, by contrast, don't control the legislative schedule and have a finite amount of time, so if more legislation is created than they have time to consider it, having the voters consider the issue more carefully before passing the bill is the thing where you can't pass the bill until the bill by itself has the support of the majority of the population.
But this is precisely how democracy fails. You have a bill that nobody wants except a special interest group in e.g. Pennsylvania. It can't pass on its own because it's not worth the candle -- Pennsylvania wouldn't even pass it themselves at the state level. But if the federal representative from Pennsylvania can get that bill funded with federal money then they get reelected in Pennsylvania. And likewise for some other bad bills from Florida and Virginia and Arkansas.
But then instead of all those bills failing as they deserve to, they get combined together and all pass, because the constituents in any given district are paying more attention to whether their boondoggle gets passed than whether their representative can prevent some other one.