In the Battle of the Health Bills, the Senate wins out, bulk-wise - weighing in at 2,074 pages. The House health reform bill was a mere 1,990 pages when introduced.　The table of contents alone is 14 pages.
Seriously. I think I just died a bit inside while reading this. If the President wishes to pass a bill for healthcare, by all means, he's more than welcome to try and do so. After all, that is the beauty of the American system. We elect a president, he tries implementing his ideas. They work, we're happy, he's reelected. They don't work and/or he can't push them through, we find a replacement. That's how's it's been done, and how it was designed to be done. However, what we're seeing here is far beyond simple "pushing ones own politics", but rather, it's becoming more and more like a childish game. "If I cant have my way, you cant have your way either".
"Read the bill!" was a rallying cry of some health reform opponents over the summer. And if Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) gets his way, senators will get a chance to hear every word of it. He's threatening to the read the legislation from start to finish, which by some estimates could take as long as 48 hours.
My god! Read the bill? Who would've thought of such a thing. Seriously, times are changing. Clearly our founding fathers didn't bother reading anything they wrote, they just had a few drinks, got some guys together, drew rude pictures of the king and sent them over. They most definitely did not spend... oh... 116 days or so on the constitutional convention alone. This "reading the bill" thing is clearly a sign of our "enlightened", modern status.
My problem here is not with the "read the bill" remarks. Clearly, if we're spending $2.24 million dollars per WORD on a bill, I would think it would behoove us to know what is in it. My problem here is the childish manner in which these senators insist on conducting themselves with. "Threatening" to read the legislation?! Isn't that like a bus driver "threatening" to drive his route? Or an electric company "threatening" to power a city? What is this? This is not a man talking about doing the job we pay him well over six figures for, this is a man trying to pull a political maneuver, at high cost to taxpayers, to prevent legislation from reaching a vote. Good sir, if you do not believe this is in the best interest of this country, by all means, debate your ideas. Put them in the public forum, convince your fellow senators to see things your way, and vote it down. The worst part is, this isn't the first time this "reading block" has happened. My question is now, what is going to happen next? Say they read the bill, and there's still support. Are they going to hire someone to translate it into Spanish, and then have all the senators learn Spanish, and then re-read the bill again? Then perhaps Portuguese? Then, just to ensure that the bill has been completely read, how about Mandarin?
The problem today isn't that the politicians are cheapening themselves. The problem today isn't even the childish antics that seem to be the proverbial rule of thumb. The problem today is that those elected are far more bent on what is good for party than what is good for country. America, as I have said so many times before, was founded on debate. From the first day of our sovereignty, there were opposing political parties. However, the difference between the parties then and the parties now is that back then, at the end of the night, it was about what was good for America. The parties fought for their ideas because they thought their ideas were best for America. Now, it seems more and more evident that the parties and party leaders are pushing their ideas for their own purposes. America, the land of the free, and the home of the brave... How long can you expect to continue playing your juvenile games in blissful ignorance while the rest of the world breaks, crumbles, and collapses around you?
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