As a graduate student I have been required repeatedly to read numerous scholarly journal articles and write several research papers for each of my classes. In doing research for whatever paper I was supposed to write, I would try to limit my sources to journals that were not more than twenty pages in length. My reasons for doing this were simple and obvious. My time is valuable and I don’t want to plod through forty or fifty pages of academic text if it will only yield one or two paragraphs of useful information for my paper. If I were asked to read a scholarly journal that was over one thousand pages long, I would consider that an outrageous imposition on my time and find some way to avoid it. I have yet to find an academic journal article that’s over a thousand pages long. However, if one were to go to Capitol Hill one would find that most bills being voted upon are about that long.
One of the major gripes of Tea Party protesters is that our elected officials who are supposed to represent our interests in Congress are voting yes on bills that they haven’t even read in their entirety. But what were they expecting? Reading a bill that’s over a thousand pages of dense legalese over the course of only a couple of days is an endeavor that would be nearly impossible to accomplish. I believe that’s the whole point. Certain interest groups want these bills to pass quickly without any scrutiny or due diligence. The best way to conceal a hidden agenda is to hide it somewhere in a thousand page document that nobody has the time or patience to read. The U.S.A. PATRIOT act was over 300 pages long and most of Congress admitted to not ever reading the full text before passing it. The stimulus bill that was passed earlier this year was over 1400 pages long and cost the taxpayer over 700 billion dollars. There were over 900 line items on this bill for pork barrel earmarks. All of this was discovered after the bill’s passing. Considering the haste with which this bill was passed, it’s clear that the representatives in Congress did not read the bill before voting yes.
All of this raises an interesting question. If the Legislative branch of this government whose job it is to write the laws aren’t even reading the laws, then who the hell is writing them? This is probably not a big secret. In all likelihood the bills are being written by a gaggle of lawyers and aides in the employment of various Congressmen and Senators. This raises another disturbing question however. Who voted to have these lawyers and aides to act on behalf of Congress? It appears they are the ones who are writing the legislation that is supposed to be mandated by the will of the people. But these lawmakers, the REAL lawmakers were not elected by the people and carry no such mandate. This is where it seems that the idea of a representative government is a fraud. After all, Congress which is comprised of elected officials isn’t writing the laws. They’ve abdicated that duty to appointed legal experts who do not answer to any constituents. This is why bills being passed are written in seemingly endless streams of legal gobbledygook. There’s something in these bills for every special interest lobby in Washington. And thanks to hundreds of pages of fine print, they get away with it.
Suppose you were to go to a used car dealership and purchase a late model vehicle. If the salesperson presents you with a financing agreement that is over a thousand pages long, would you even consider signing it? If the answer to that question is yes, then I have some beach front property in Aspen, CO I would love to sell to you. In keeping with the used car dealership analogy, would you consider purchasing a vehicle with a thousand-page financing agreement if the salesman were using high-pressure sales tactics? Imagine if he said “If you don’t buy this car right now, the price will be double tomorrow.” I seriously doubt this person would make a sale. That’s exactly what the current administration did with the 1400 page stimulus bill, that’s what the previous administration did with the TARP program, and that’s what’s happening with the current proposed health care bill. The urgency behind these behemoth bills should give each and every one of us pause. Why are they in such a rush, and why does this bill consist of over 1000 pages of dense legalese? What are they hiding?
The Constitution of The United States of America is twenty one pages long in Adobe pdf format including all twenty seven amendments. This is a document that forged the laws of an entire nation in clear and explicit language. It doesn’t need to be thousands of pages long. It was written to bind the hands of the government so that the people may be free from it’s meddling. It was not written to confuse or deceive anyone and would take less than an hour to read in it’s entirety. However, I would be willing to bet most of our so-called representatives in Congress haven’t read that document either.
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Bravo. Couldn't have said it better myself. I propose one simple new law. The people who make the laws, follow the laws. If they don't, they pay back every cent they've been given in salary. There is no more handouts for life. Insurance ends, when the job ends. They then will have to find insurance at age 55 through a private carrier. (Sure hope they don't have any pre-existing conditions). If we, the constituents find they are liars and cheats, when it makes the front page of the newspapers, they need to pay up. They will not need fear of eternal punishment, they will live by fear of exposure. Oh, who am I kidding? They will just say they were possessed by the devil (or fame), apologize, go to rehab and magically be forgiven for their transgressions. If they have to pay back the citizens, the followers, the advertisers, now this might get them to fear doing it in the first place. Restitution that takes place in the here and now. Tiger Woods – squeaky clean image – a fraud. John Edward's moral compass is his wife? WTF Pay up sucker. You're a fraud. The vatican is the wealthiest organization in the world. Binny Hinn and the federal reserve get no audits. John McCain has how many houses? This is one of our leaders. It is the classic, don't do as I do, do as I say. That didn't go over well with kids either. Lead by example. The Catholic church in one small little town has five pages of tax exempt property listed on the county register. Why is there not outrage at their greed. I'll give you one tax free property to god pedal, but that's all you get. I'll give politicians one enormous house to show their "success", but when you brag about owning five, (or was it six) houses while the electorate you represent just got kicked to the curb, lost their job because the company they worked for moved to a cheap labor country, aided and abetted by legislation that protects and encourages incentives so the rich get richer and you become a beggar. Oh, and let's not forget, you are now fifty something and no insurance will cover you, no company will hire you, and they have the audacity to say you should have saved for this "rainy" day. The only people who really saved for this rainy day were the people who make the laws. They made a law for themselves to have insurance coverage the rest of their lives. They legislated nice retirement packages. Nice law, but only for them. It would cost too much to give to the rest of America. Their "special" and privledged for serving us and we should be grateful, keep our heads in the sand and shut up if we know what is best. There will be no more middle class to support their luxuries. We'll have the rich and the poor. That is called fascism, not freedom. Good bye to the American dream. Maybe I'd be better off going back to my sand pile or grazing field and just shut up and follow orders. Ignorance is bliss. Baaa…baaaa.
Even more importantly is the fact that the elected legislature who's mandate it is to write the laws aren't even reading the laws anymore. The laws are being written by unelected staffers who operate with no mandate from any constituency. Our whole system of government has been outsourced. Pretty soon the legislation that governs this country will be written by cheaply hired legal experts somewhere in Bangalore, India.