If I hear 1 more talking head complain about 1000 pages...

[samrock]

in the health care bill and demand each person who has to vote on it sign a statement demanding they have read it .. I will scream... Don't these idiots realize congressmen have large staffs?? If I was a congressmen I would gather 10 or so staffers have them split up the bill and outline the key points.. discuss it among there selves.. then prepare a summary and briefing for me telling me and the stuff inside.. I figure with 10 should take less than a week..

[bluestateguy]

1. With single payer you could probably write a bill of less than 10 pages

nt

[dflprincess]

4. Close - HR676 is 16 pages long (eom)

[ejpoeta]

8. well NO WONDER it doesn't get brought up for a vote.... it is so short that they

have no excuse why they didn't read it all.

[enlightenment]

2. Hire some grad students (history or sociology especially)

Not uncommon to be assigned 300-400 pages every week. Ten of those and you'd have the entire thing read, dissected, and summarized with addenda in a couple of days . . .

[jimshoes]

3. How about when bush rammed through the Patriot Act

No one even had a chance to read it, but through it went.

[gratuitous]

10. Well, that was then, and they were really scared

And this is now. They're still really scared, but in a different way this time.

[janx]

5. It's my understanding that there is no formal bill as yet.

There are proposals, and senators, representatives, and their staffs should analyze them.

[shadowknows69]

6. Where were they demanding that Congress read the Patriot Act?

As Bushco stampeded it into existence.

[BumRushDaShow]

13. Bingo. n/t

[ejpoeta]

7. no one seemed worried about whether anyone had read the bills for the past eight years.

while they were ramming things through... while i do believe they should know what they are voting on, i do find it interesting that NOW people care whether the bill has been read. and by 'people' i mean the MSM....

personally, i have no idea why these bills have to be so long. as far as i can see, it is more so that they can hide things in there that when it gets skimmed over people don't notice.

[timeforpeace]

9. I've read 3 700+ page books in the last 2 weeks. They can read this. What the hell

will it hurt to have them read it? This is ridiculous.

[emilyg]

11. Just as they should have read

the stimulus bill.

[Statistical]

12. Just as they should read EVERY bill but don't

That is why so much shitty legislation gets passed. That is why every bill gets shotgunned full or pork or unrelated amendments.

I guess I just am old school:
"If you are going to do something, then do it right".

In my humble opinion doing something right requires you to read it to make an informed decision before voting on something based on principles when the details suck ass.

I would rather they pass 100 good laws per year then 1000 ones nobody has a clue what the ramifications are.