While British politicians engage in adult pursuits such as the acquisition of material wealth, across the pond the elected representatives of the people have been carrying on like a group of overgrown school kids.

Republicans and Democrats have been wrangling this week over proposed legislation to tackle climate change. In the course of this spat it emerged that the former were considering frustrating the latter by forcing the entire 900 page bill and its 400 amendments to be read aloud.

Faced with this perceived ‘delaying tactic’ Democrat Henry Waxman, the chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, did what any self respecting person in his position would do … he hired someone who can read really, really fast.

Via TPM, here is a video of what happened next:

As Reuters notes:

The words flew by, sometimes almost unintelligible and too fast for even the most competent note-takers in the hearing room filled with lawmakers, lobbyists and journalists. … After about 40 seconds, Joe Barton, the senior Republican on the committee who played along with the moment of levity, signalled he had enough of the fast-talking Wilder.

While TPM sees this as “an extraordinary measure to combat nefarious Republican stall tactics”, the Weekly Standard disagrees:

Even if the reading of the bill is a partisan “stall tactic” on the part of the Republicans, intellectually honest folks who want government to function responsibly would have to admit it’s a pretty benign one—beneficial, even. The brouhaha over reading the bill is an implicit, disturbing admission that—yes!— your Congress will enact a 900-page bill heavily regulating the fundamental engine of the American economy and your life in unprecedented ways without ever having read it. Feel good about that?

If only the same speed reader had been available in Manchester recently, it would have speeded up this art event, where members of the public were invited to read the entire IPCC Fourth Assessment Report on Climate Change. That was scheduled to take three days…