Government Shutdown

I can't see that costing millions just because it's a law. Laws normally have months or years of research, writing and review, legal reviews, committee meetings, expert testimony, even travel and other associated expenses. Naming a post office? Fill out the form, put a few paragraphs together and put it on the floor. No committee meetings, no experts, no writing teams, no reviews, no testimony, no travel or late nights... It's gotta be a nominal cost.

Malor wrote:
Why do we need a law to name a post office? Part of my point... we shouldn't need an act of congress that costs taxpayers millions to pass a law to name a post office.

Well, to be fair, they only cost millions when the lawmakers aren't doing anything else. They can squeeze bills like that through for nearly nothing, when the cost is amortized across other work they're doing.

States usually require laws to name things, as well. That's how you know the name is official.

Yeah, I think that this is the answer here. While there are going to be lots of associated expenses like Robear just mentioned for "the real stuff" I bet the bulk of this cost is just the normal salaries of all of the associated staff. If Congress does their actual job each bill would cost (totally not accurate number) $10. Since they don't do their job when you divide "number of bills" by "total cost" you get (totally not a real number) $16 billion instead.

Also, someone mentioned the "opportunity cost" of Congress actually doing important stuff, that doesn't actually exist. Maybe it did in the past, but right now we just have the "opportunity cost" of missing out on more of our Congress people sitting with their thumbs up their asses glaring at each other.

P&C Fall cleaning! This thread is no longer about the original post.