Civics Lessons, A Rant

So, I get to work, talk with Dave before I relieve him for the next twelve hours, boot up my laptop and check my email. One of the things I receive is a feed from MSNBC news, and they had this nifty little article from the AP about mental heath parity bill being tucked in with the bail out bill that congress just passed. I thought to myself for a bit, stewing, getting angrier. So I went off and researched the article and found it. It came from the Lacrosse Tribune out of Lacrosse Wisconsin by AP writer Kevin Freking. Kevin… dude, time to go take some remedial high school civics classes. The Mental Health Parity Act was not tacked onto the bail out, the bail out was tacked onto the MHPA, the difference, while subtle to most Americas (and that is unfortunate) was critical by the fraking Constitution of the United States of America. *exasperated sigh* the Senate has the powers of “advise and consent” (treaty and appointment approval), and the House has the powers of impeachment (trial in the Senate) and powers of Appropriations (article I, section 7), i.e. all spending bills must originate in the House of Representatives. Therefore, for the Senate to get the ball rolling they had to tack the 0.7 Teradollar bailout onto another bill, it could not ride out of the senate on its own. That other bill just happened to be the Mental Health Parity Act. Kevin, you are a reporter, reporting on something quite critical to the function of the United States, it may seem pedantic to point it out, but the error is important, and too much knowledge of how the government works has been lost to the average citizen to reinforce the ignorance.

EDIT: Am I tilting at windmills here?