Over the weekend, House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers mocked the suggestion that congressmen should read the pending federal health care legislation.
“What good is reading the bill if it’s 1,000 pages and you don’t have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?” he said.
Oops…a congressman accidentally slipped and told the American people something we already suspected: the people we elect don’t even read, much less understand, the bills they write and pass into law.
Put another way, Congress has written and expects the American people to obey the law; yet an elected representative in favor of the law doesn’t even understand it and refuses to even entertain the thought of reading it. There are almost no words.
Clearly, Mr. Conyers is uninformed about the values upon which our government system is founded. We elect our congressmen to make governing decisions on our behalf, and we expect those decisions to be based on sound judgment and the best and most thorough information available.
And while the congressman’s remark is certainly startling, he also unintentionally brings up some important points. Why does a bill even need to be 1,000 pages long, and why does a member of Congress need help from two lawyers just to understand the bill’s language?
Let’s simplify health care, not pass laws so complex that even our society’s so-called elite can’t understand.
– Elizabeth Young