The Vapor Bill – Where is the Bill?
Posted October 5th, 2009 at 10.47am in Health Care.
President Barack Obama’s push for a sweeping health care overhaul is going to be voted upon in the Senate Finance Committee this week and nobody has read the actual bill yet. The Washington Post reported last Friday that “Senate Finance Committee Releases Its Final Text of Health-Care Bill,” yet you click on a link to the “Bill” referenced in the Post article and all you get is a 262 page description of the legislation. There still is no actual legislative language being given to Senators, Staff or the American Public. That is why many are calling it the “Vapor Bill.”
The AP is reporting that “Dem leader faces tough job in crafting health bill.” The AP reports that “first the Finance Committee bill must be combined with a more liberal version that the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee wrapped up this summer. This merger is so rare that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has never attempted it on any piece of legislation — much less one as complex as President Barack Obama’s top legislative priority.”
This process is far different than the way you learned in 9th grade civics class how a bill becomes law. Nowhere in that class were you told that a bill passes one committee (Senate HELP) and a description of a bill passes another Committee (Senate Finance), then the Senate Majority Leader writes his own bill without a transparent means for all Senators and the American people to participate in the process. Maybe there are no smoke filled rooms anymore in the Capitol, yet in these latte filled rooms this week, Senate leaders, emissaries of the Obama Administration, maybe a lobbyist or two and some select staff are writing Obamacare.
Why can’t we read the bill? Any Senator has the power to request that the Senate Clerk read any legislation. That may be the only means for the American people to understand what is actually in the bill.
- Author: Brian Darling
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October 5, 2009 Freedomof Speech TX writes:
They “get it”.
They know Americans are disgusted and upset about the lack of transparency.
They know any bill written WILL NOT contain clear, concise language that the people will understand - let alone those who vote on it.
The problem is THEY DO NOT CARE.
I sincerely believe this will come back and haunt many of them in their bid for reelection. Some are in “protected areas”; simply put, their constituents are as wacked out as their representatives.
But, for the others, will Americans vote those out who do not properly represent them?
The 2010 Election will be historic. Don’t be fooled when most of the stimulus money is released next year before the elections! This disgusting political tactic, alone, is enough for them to go.