I Don’t Want My Congressman to Read the Entire Healthcare Bill

Do Repbublicans have to actually break a podium or table by slamming down the text of the healthcare reform bill before someone asks why they’re so obsessed with the number of pages in the bill?

Shouldn’t a bill that would reform one sixth of the economy of the United States be 2,000 some pages long? If you can write a plan on a bar napkin, an insurance executive would only need the time it takes him to finish his beer to devise a way exploit it.

Personally, I don’t want my legislator wasting her time by reading the entire bill. If I wanted her to read the entire healthcare reform bill, wouldn’t I want her to read every page of every bill, every amendment to every bill, and every position paper produced in the Congress? Has any legislator actually read the hundreds of thousands of pages that come across his desk each year? God, I hope not.

The only way to read that much would be to lock yourself away in a room for the year. Since most of these documents are rather technical and outside of any one congressman’s expertise, he couldn’t understand everything he’s reading and wouldn’t have time to learn enough about the subject matter to vote intelligently. He’d be better off going to lunch with someone who is an expert on the pending legislation.

Would I expect a congressman on the transportation committee to read and fully understand the healthcare reform bill? NO. But, would I expect a congressman on a healthcare committee to read and understand the bill? DAMN YES. At the very least, I expect our congressmen to hire staff who can understand the legislation. The only reason to demand that every congressman read every word of every bill is to stop all progress in the Congress ….

So, Congressman … DON’T READ THE BILL. Speak with healthcare committee members, discuss it with your staff, talk to your constituents, decide how you want to vote … and VOTE !!!