Chris Zell <chrisz...@wetmtv.com> wrote: Your daughter? Interesting but irrelevant. >
It is relevant because she had direct knowledge of some of what happened during the drafting of the bill. Some of the reports in the mass media and assertions that the bill was kept secret were false. > > It is an elected representative that has the moral responsibility to READ > every bill they pass – and NOT anyone else. > As a practical matter, that is impossible. That would be like demanding that a major publisher read every word in every book and magazine her company puts out. It would be like demanding that the CEO of General Motors should read every word of every technical report, every construction plan, and sales report issued at every level in the company. Or that the Joint Chiefs of Staff should read every single military order issued by their services, at all levels. A person who spends every waking moment reading could not read all of the draft legislation in the U.S. Congress. There are thousands and thousands of pages. Most of it is revised or not passed, so most of that reading would be a waste of time. As a practical matter, a Member of Congress has to depend on his or her staff to read legislation and make recommendations. The Member reads selected portions of legislation that calls for decisions or input from the Member. You might say that a Member should be able to read every draft law, and because Members cannot, that means the U.S. government is too large. That is like saying General Motors is too large because the CEO cannot read every technical report. GM is not "too big." The U.S. government is a complex modern institution with many responsibilities. It serves 320 million people. It cannot be made smaller and still meet the needs of modern life, or the needs of the largest military in history. > If the matter was so well known and vouched for then why did Pelosi say > ‘vote for it to find out what’s in it”? Clearly, many didn’t know – and > that’s corruption. > She meant that the GOP had ignored the bill, and not offered input during the 1-year drafting process, so it was too late for them to demand changes. See: http://www.mediaite.com/tv/the-context-behind-nancy-pelosis-famous-we-have-to-pass-the-bill-quote/ Her words were distorted to mean it was a secret, which is ridiculous. As I said, it wasn't a secret. I and many others read drafts. Of course the drafts changed over time. > > My former Congressman told me that not only do they not read bills but > those responsible for tax legislation can’t do their own tax returns. > There is an example of actual excessive complexity that serves no useful purpose. Computer programs are necessarily complex, but some are too complex. Many other systems become too complex. No doubt, parts of the government should be simplified or abandoned. A much simpler healthcare system is possible. In Europe, Japan and Canada they have the equivalent of Medicare for everyone, at all ages. This is far simpler from the patient's point of view. The complexity is hidden. This also costs about one-half to one-third of U.S. healthcare. Examples of hidden complexity include things like internet, the telephone system, air traffic control, the regulation of automobile safety, and the upcoming self-driving car technology. Government and industry are already drafting thousands of pages of regulations and standards for self-driving cars. The Congress will have to approve of this. No Member of Congress has the technical skill to understand this legislation. (I have seen some of it; I do not understand it, and I know way more about this stuff than most Members do.) If we are going to have air traffic control and self-driving cars we must have Members pass legislation they do not understand. That's all there is to it. Since self driving cars will save roughly 30,000 lives a year and improve life tremendously in other ways, we should have them even though most people -- including Members of Congress -- will have no idea how they work. - Jed
