Posted by
RME KRNL on Saturday, October 31, 2009 12:44:10 AM
The last version of health care reform that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed through, without legislators even reading it, was about 1,000 pages long. They didn't think we would read it, either, but some of us did and objected to many of its provisions in the town hall meetings in August, at which many attendees were more knowledgeable about it than the "Congressionals" holding the meetings. Plus, thousands of TEA Party protesters also insisted that Congressmen and women "Read the Bill."
But, now, with this go-round, Nanny State Nancy has learned her lesson. Pelosi's 400,000 word, 1,990 page, 19-plus pound health care reform bill is practically TWICE as big -- longer than Leo Tolstoy's "War and Peace" and five times longer than the Old Testament. It's "short" title is -- remember to name it nice, now, so the voters will know just by its name that we're looking out for them -- the "America's Affordable Health Choices Act (AAHCA) of 2009."
And even if they do post it on the Internet, as promised, for three days (remember when Obama promised five?) before voting on it, and you do have time to read it all, you still won't know what it says because it's full of legalese and much of it refers to and/or cites other official documents whose language is not included in the bill and to which you probably don't have access. Besides, it would take lawmakers themselves, who are used to reading Congressional legalese and who might be able to cross-reference the other documents, several days to go over it even once. And clever Nancy will probably push for it to be voted on before November 11th's Veteran's Day.
So much for "apparent" transparency.
"Oh, we don't have to really BE transparent. We just have to APPEAR to be so we have "political cover" (read: plausible deniability) and can smile and dissemble and pat our stupid little constituents on the head while keeping them quiet and happy at the same time."
But, oh, don't worry, because now while the "public option" of single payer universal health care paid for by the government, i.e., your tax dollars, is still actually in there, it's not called the "public option" anymore. Now, according to Nanny State Nancy, it's the "consumer option." Makes a BIG difference, huh?
"Hmmm, if the constituents don't like the 'public option,' let's don't actually change anything but let's just call it something else, something less irritating, something harmless sounding, even beneficial. They'll never know the difference. And once again we 'can smile and dissemble and pat our stupid little constituents on the head while keeping them quiet and happy at the same time.'"
Hmmm, where have I heard that last part before? Oh well, they say that short term memory is the first thing to go.....and I can't remember what the second thing is.
Oh, and there's still not any language specifically prohibiting the federal funding (your tax dollars again) of abortion, either, for those of you (and me) to whom that matters.
Of course, whatever the House passes this time around will still have to be reconciled with whatever the Senate finally passes, so we won't know for a while what the final monster is going to look like. We can only assume that it will still be a monster.
[Hmmm, tangential thought, how appropriate that both the House and Senate are trying to get some form of each of their "monsters" ready for reconciliation now, around Halloween time.]
Anyway, more on this subject later, as our congressional "progressives" make "progress."