A 1 year study produced concrete details that can be investigated. Then the most senior congress people get 2 minutes of sounds bites and no progress is made. It is a farce. There may well be real violations of public trust or illegal activity, but this is not the way to effectively examine those reports.
They don't even let the CEOs talk long enough to commit perjury. It is a dog and pony show for congress and the CEOs.
Obviously, in 5 minutes nothing can be done. I suppose in smaller setting, maybe sub-committees, but not here. Here the idea is that later DOJ starts looking around and let them talk for hours and days. Will it happen?
I agree with sub-committees and more focused time. It doesn't make sense for this sub-committee to tackle so many disparate businesses.
Imagine in 1982 Congress had hearings with AT&T, Exxon Mobile, Ford, Amoco, DuPont, Boeing, and Eastman Kodak. They probably wouldn't have had the focus to force the breakup of the Bell Systems.
It's politics. This wasn't for any actual investigation or enforcement (that's what the DOJ and FTC are doing), this was for the re-election campaigns.
A 1 year study produced concrete details that can be investigated. Then the most senior congress people get 2 minutes of sounds bites and no progress is made. It is a farce. There may well be real violations of public trust or illegal activity, but this is not the way to effectively examine those reports.
They don't even let the CEOs talk long enough to commit perjury. It is a dog and pony show for congress and the CEOs.