Ben Quayle is a legislative genius, right? I mean, take a look at this release from his office:
The “Capital Expansion Act” changes an outdated requirement that banks with 500 shareholders or more register with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The bill revises the shareholder threshold upward to 2000, in order to make the process of raising capital easier.
“To keep our small businesses competitive, we must make sure they are not held back by antiquated rules. This bill creates jobs by enabling small banks–which make the vast majority of small business loans–to raise capital without the SEC’s costly oversight holding them back.”
Wow, you did that all by yourself?
Wait a second, what’s this that I read? This is from former Republic reporter Billy House, who now writes for the National Journal:
Sniping from both sides of the aisle surfaced on Monday over a decision by House GOP leaders to give freshman Rep. Ben Quayle, R-Ariz., the election-year sponsorship of a jobs bill that some say is—in an already passed version—the bipartisan work of others.
The bill was actually writen by Jim Himes, a Democrat from Connecticut and a Tennessee Republican, Steve Womack. The bill passed last year, but Quayle connived to take the credit for it. This from Politico:
So Rep. Himes was somewhat surprised to hear that a new bill, sponsored by Rep. Ben Quayle (R-Ariz.) and doing pretty much exactly what Himes’ bill would do, would be part of the GOP leadership’s new jobs legislation package… A person familiar with the matter called Quayle’s bill, H.R. 4088., “a total cut and paste job.” This person said “the only substantive difference is that the Quayle bill does not contain a provision requiring a study of the cost-benefit analysis of the shareholder registration threshold.”
It wouldn’t be so bad, I suppose, if Quayle’s press release bothered to give any of the other authors of the bill even an ounce of credit. Oh, by the way, one of the other authors is David Schweikert, who Quayle is running against in an unusual incumbent-vs-incumbent smackdown.
I’m pretty sure that fact is totally irrelevant.
