Too many words

by YankeeJim | September 30, 2011 at 12:40 pm

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I have been listening to various testimonies before congressional committees on different subjects and something occurred to me that has been burning in my mind for a long time, people are taking too long to say things and their speech is cluttered with unnecessary nuance and caveats. Experts in various fields are undoubtedly well educated. They are honored to be speaking, but I think they are enjoying the act too much.

We the People and our elected representatives need straight answers.

For instance, questioning the Congressional Budget Office, do you have an accurate model for budgeting and projecting associated costs and revenues?

Yes or no?

The expert launders a list of caveats and conditional points, variables if you will, and describes reluctance to say that the model being used is the best available.

So the congressman asks, “We know you want to upgrade the model and you need six months to do it, but we need answers today.”

The expert renders another list of caveats and hedges and suggests that he is not an expert on all of the subject rules. He looked around for help. People behind him from the department all ducked.

The congressman pleaded for some straight answers and the buzzer rang and he ran out of time.

That’s the way it goes here.

Listening to an expert on Russia, I heard the same pattern.

A congressman wanted know why the State Department is organized a certain way to address the “new Russia” while the Department of Defense is still organized to address some remnant of the Soviet Union.

The Russian expert could have waved off answering because it wasn’t his place to answer, but enjoying the moment he consumed more time talking about Russia and never really answering any specific questions.

So it goes. Voters need to pay attention. Don’t accept this circumstance as being what we need and want from government. See this for the time wasting and costly performance that it is.

“A hearing is a meeting or session of a Senate, House, Joint, or Special Committee of Congress, usually open to the public, to obtain information and opinions on proposed legislation, conduct an investigation, or evaluate/oversee the activities of a government department or the implementation of a Federal law. In addition, hearings may also be purely exploratory in nature, providing testimony and data about topics of current interest. Most Congressional hearings are published two months to two years after they are held. Only hearings released to GPO from the committees are made available on GPO Access”