Don’t rubber stamp an unread healthcare bill
To the editor:
The following letter was written to the Blue Dog Coalition, Health Care Task Force concerning the Health Care Rubber Stamp Ceremony by Veterans Day:
While I am not one of your constituents I am writing to you because the Blue Dogs will likely control the outcome of the health care legislation. I have great respect for your courage in developing fair and responsible common ground between ideological extremes. I have of course sent this to my representative (Connie Mack (FL 14)) also, but I hoped that these perspectives would be of some value to you as well.
Our Constitution is four pages long.
The 1,990 page Health Care Bill released to the House floor last Thursday is scheduled for a vote before Veterans Day, allowing about seven session days for review and debate. This isn’t democracy. It’s a rubber stamp ceremony.
This is six days longer for review than the 1,073 page $787 billion stimulus package, which was released at 10 p.m. the day before the votes were taken. It could not be humanly possible for a single member of either chamber to read this bill. We cannot repeat this charade.
The health care bill is staggering in terms of its sheer size, constitutional conflicts, complexity, impact on our quality of life and our economy. Adequate time for a responsible due diligent review by all members of congress is essential. Less than this is bad government.
I am sure the demands upon your time are enormous. Allowing for attendance to congressional sessions, committee work, contact with constituents and colleagues, your other legislative commitments, public appearances, work with your staff, travel, and many other demands, I’d doubt that you or any member of congress will realistically be able to devote more than two hours per day, on average, to their review of this (or any other) legislation. If two hours per day are available, at one page per minute it would take over 17 days just to read this bill, plus time to review the vital references from the CBO and others, reflect upon your constituents’ needs, research your questions, organize your position on the bill, and participate in the floor debate. Considering all factors, possibly one day for review and debate per 60 pages in a bill is reasonable.
I ask you consider the following actions:
Commit to your constituents that you will not even consider supporting this (or any other) bill if adequate time isn’t provided for a responsible due diligent review.
Demand a substantial extension to the schedule to provide adequate time for a responsible due diligent review and make it clear that you will not support the bill unless adequate time is allowed. If you agree with the one day per 60 pages rationale above, the schedule should be extended to approximately 33 session days. I appreciate that the extension effort will certainly fail.
Arrange a process for all representatives to, at least voluntarily, submit a signed statement that they have or have not had adequate time to personally read the bill itself and for a responsible due diligent review of the bill. These statements would be submitted on the date of the vote to whatever office which can collect the statements; provide a tally by name and district of those submitting the statement, their answer, and those who did not submit. This tally should be released to the press within a few days of the vote.
Thomas Jefferson once said, “Information is the currency of democracy.” Time is also.
Oliver L. Clarke
Cape Coral