Oct
30
The health care reform bill in the U.S. House of Representatives is over 1,900 pages long. If it takes you two minutes to read a page, it would take you more than 63-hours of non-stop reading to get through it all. That’s two-and-a-half days with no sleep. Compare that to the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Perhaps tongue-in-cheek, some are suggesting a constitutional amendment to limit the length of bills in Congress.
But there is a danger in complex bills that run hundreds of pages: it allows the opportunity for loopholes aimed at special interests. The longer a bill, the more “stuff” that can be thrown in to make sure someone gets extra benefits.
Government transparency is about more than just seeing how the money is spent. It’s about allowing the average person to know what their government is doing so that they can let their elected representatives know how they feel on the issue. And there probably aren’t many average people who can spend two-and-a-half days reading a health care reform bill.
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