Lots of Words! Lots of Pages! Run Away, GOP!

[babylonsister]

http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-treatment/why-republicans-worry-about-length

Why Republicans Worry About Size
Harold Pollack

Harold Pollack is a professor at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration and Special Correspondent for The Treatment.


I have before me two tomes. The longer one is a somewhat rushed and tedious product whose guiding ideological vision and fuzzy presentation of crucial details repelled independent voters the last time it was put to an electoral test. The second document is somewhat more succinct and engaging but remains open to criticism for its embarrassingly padded margins and large print that makes it seem so much longer than it actually is. I'll leave you to guess which one is Sarah Palin's memoir and which is the Senate health reform bill.

If you listen to Republicans, they oppose that Senate bill because it is a Rube Goldberg contraption that is just too complicated, too opaque, and fills too many pages. Yesterday, Lamar Alexander gave full voice to this objection speaking with Ezra Klein: "One thing is you can’t be sure what’s in the Senate bill because it's 2,100 pages long. You just know there are surprises in it." He may have good reasons to oppose the Senate bill, but I'm pretty sure that its length and complexity are not his real beef. Congress routinely passes cinder-block-sized tomes that could provide valuable armor plating for tanks headed to Iraq.

Politicians who say that they oppose a bill because it's too long and complicated are generally fibbing. The only mystery becomes: What are they really thinking? In like fashion, a politician who says that she opposes something because it amounts to large-scale social engineering is more likely to believe what she is saying, but she is still telling an untruth. No doubt about it; health reform is ambitious social engineering. So was welfare reform. So were Reagan and Bush (43) tax cuts. So was No Child Left Behind. So was knocking down high-rise public housing here in Chicago. Privatizing Social Security and converting Medicare to vouchers (two favorite Republican ideas) are huge and messy social engineering projects, too.

snip//

Bills rarely fall of their own weight. Most are pushed over the edge by politicians who have their own reasons to see them dead. Republicans oppose health reform because it is an expansion of activist government, and because it is the politically vulnerable signature domestic policy achievement of the Obama administration. It's that simple. If one believes that 30 million people need health insurance now, rather on the model of the original Wyden-Bennett bill, we can't wait.

[11 Bravo]

1. Not just words, but polysyllabic words! The party of Palin can't have that.

[Mz Pip]

2. Poor excuse on the part of the

Republicans to whine that the bill is too long. It's their job to read this stuff. That's what we send them to DC to do.

Maybe we should ask the Democrats to add some pictures just to keep Boner's interest.

[niceypoo]

7. They have paid staff who read the bills

Republicans are liars AND asshats

[Kyril Enko]

3. Stephanie Vander Kellen

She was the ditzy maid on Newhart back in the 1980s. Whenever given reading matter, she'd say, "Words! Ewwww!"

Hmmmm, maybe Julia Duffy (the actress who played her) could be Palin's running mate!

[Hissyspit]

4. I love that show. Still catch reruns occassionally.

Saw at the time of its original airing, the final episode: "Critics and fans alike have called this the single best and most surprising episode in television comedy history, including Entertainment Weekly Magazine, which put it at the top of its "Best All-Time Episodes" list."

I was laughing with my jaw wide open.

I won't discuss it in case there are still people who haven't seen it.

[elleng]

5. I don't disagree, but I'd put it this way:

They would lose power, and it would go TO THE PEOPLE.

[Jennicut]

6. Hey, if I can get through the Lord of The Rings then these Rethugs can read the damn

health care bill! I mean really.

[WonderGrunion]

8. The last Harry Potter book had more words than the Healthcare Bill

And I know 9 year olds that finished it in a week.

Most Republics are NOT smarter than a fifth grader.

[starroute]

9. I can think of a couple more reasons the GOP opposes health care reform

One is that if it succeeds, it would secure the fortunes of the Democratic Party for a generation to come.

But the even larger reason is that it would make workers less dependent maintaining employment with large corporations -- and if there's anything the Republicans are against, it's people having greater freedom.

[JoeyT]

10. I thought the pages were supposed to run from the Republicans.

If I were in their shoes I certainly would.

[Vinca]

11. We can make it real easy for them. 2 words: single payer.

[Hekate]

12. Repubs weren't afraid of the size of the USA PATRIOT Act, though.

Hypocritical SOBs.

Hekate

[rasputin1952]

13. Or that it went through w/virtually no review whatsoever...

it was ramrodded through and only after a time some of it challenged. It took longer for the public to find out just how all encompassing the monster was as well. The PA striped away Rights we have had since the inception of the nation in one fell swoop, benefited only "Big Government" and created a situation where American Citizens became little more than suspects in an ongoing "war" on terror.

it never ceases to amaze me that the R's squeal whenever there is any inking of actually helping an American citizen, but barely a whimper when the same citizen is oppressed...:grr:

[Hekate]

14. I completely agree. nt