It has been one week since the Senate Majority Leader announced that he had sent his health care bill to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the American people still have not seen Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) version of Obamacare. Last week 40 Senators signed a letter asking Reid to make all materials he sent to the CBO public. Yesterday, Senator Reid finally responded, but not with transparency. Instead he wrote a Dear Colleague letter to all Senator in response:
We are now working to take these publicly available-provisions and meld them together into a single bill. Apart from my decision to include a public option from which states may opt out, no final decisions have been made – and none can be made until we get more information about how CBO would score different combinations. In other words, there is no bill to release publicly – it does not exist.
Why is the Senate Majority Leader fighting transparency? Why can’t the American people see what Harry Reid sent to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)? Senator Reid added a public option “from which stats may opt out” as a new addition to the bills sent to CBO from the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate HELP Committee. What else will be added to the bill? The American people and the opposition party in the Senate are being locked out of the room when decisions are being made by liberal elites on what they have decided to impose on American and call Obamacare. The American people deserve access to legislation that may change the way they access health care and increase their taxation to pay for a plan that may cost as much as $1.4 trillion over the next 10 years.
He's just following his 'leader'. So what else could we expect?
The problem we have with transparency, is that when they DO make something public, they make it 2,000 pages and then call for a vote the next day to keep us all from reading it in entirety. Somehow, some way, we MUST force Congress to alow only ONE ITEM on ALL bills. We must also limit them to 10 pages so the legal sharks can't confuse the issue with a bunch of non-discernible jargon. Frankly, I want to read them all. No pork allowed!
With the Democrats blaming the other party and creating their own bill behind closed doors in dark rooms one has to wonder if they remember L.A 1992 and the power of the "mad mobs".
Simply put if these so called leaders keep on this dark path they will find that the people would rather burn America to the ground than hand control over to a tyrant.
I realize I'm naive but why can't we try to pass laws that ALL Bills are to be "Transparent". Are they afraid to do their work in public? Yea, they are.
By the way, I've tried to find out who actually writes these Bill for Congress. I would think there are hundreds of people who do this. Who are they? Who do they work for? Who pays their salaries? Education level etc.?
I would think I'm not the only one interested. I coulden't find anything on the net. I think it would be a good book.
William L. Onderdonk
Casa Grande, AZ
Thanks for listening
As custodians of our republic, congress and the administration are expected to solve problems within the constitutional constraints of limited governance. Instead, they're growing government bureaucracy in order to spend the trillions of dollars that's creating an unbelievably massive national debt. The purpose being to control economic and social programs that rightfully belong to the individual states. I'm not one to be duped into debating the pros and cons of a manufactured public healthcare need. But I do have to ask about the opt out for states???? My message to Harry, stop yanking my chain!
Aside of who actually wrote this catastrophe, it is and always will be, the presidents "PLAN." "MY PLAN WILL PASSSSSS!"
So you think we should be able to read bills before they are made into laws that bind us?
There is such a bill in committee in the House, HR 554 which mandates that legislation be posted on the internet 72 hours prior to final vote.
That bill has been held hostage in committee for about 6 months. Walden's Discharge Petition has been initiated to force the transparency bill out of committee so that it can come to the floor for a vote.
There are 182 representative's signatures on the petition. We need 36 more.
What a shame that we should have to legislate something so blatantly obvious. How ridiculous that that legislation should not be allowed to come to the floor for a vote!
If you would like information on whether your representative has signed the petition go to "Let Freedom Ring/We the people can read.
Have read all the comments so far and just wanted to give a resounding "Amen!" to all of them. May God continue to bless America, and may He inspire us to know what to do to reclaim our Republic.
What a surprise! The Demorats want to hide their
plans from the American people. This is nothing
new. They HIDE, DISTORT, TWIST, CONFUSE, AND JUST PLAIN LIE. That's just what Obama and Demorat do.
If you knew who is writing these bills since Mao-Bama took America hostage you wouldn't be able to sleep. It's oviously not the congress or senate. Why would you expext transparency from the guy who created Reid's realestate money magic system.
Harry Reid is a lame duck and don"t care about america or it's people all he cares is for his self center socialist unconsitutional agenda and the liberal demicratic party dictator take over
So much for hope and change………….
Demand to ask Reid, Pelosi and all the Dems, why did they put the clause, whereby, Congress will "opt out" from this Bill and keep their Cadillac premium.
Demand to know/ask why Apollo (who wrote originally wrote the bill), SEIU and Acorn are benefiting from this bill. Pelosi's 111 new agencies will benefit the 3 agencies, financially and employment, growing government under their control.
Pure socialism/fascism!
AND VOTERS WILL SAY 'NO' TO REID 2010.!!!!!
People with nothing to hide, hide nothing.
This bill is not about the people, it's about control and greed. The Axis of Evil of Obama, Reid and Pelosi…all corrupt, greedy and self serving.
Throw the bums out!
If you are free of ulterior motives, you have nothing to hide…Seems Reid and Pelosi have plenty to hide. Call your reps and let them know that you don't want this health care plan passed, especially if it contains a loophole that allows illegal aliens access to it. We need to be stronger than the anti-American organizations like La Raza, who will do anything to get it passed and have all the criminals covered. Ms. Pelose thinks it's "unamerican" not to give illegals all the rights reserved for citizens. Get rid of Reid, Pelosi, Guteirrez and their ilk or our streets will soon look like Juarez – many already do.
I know on the local level there are the "Open" meetings rules that prohibit 'private' meetings of certain elected officials and boards, and then there are the Open Records Laws that have to be followed.
Are we saying that these laws in place do not even give us the right to see preliminary writings and bill provisions before they become the law of the land?
I would think that even these closed door meetings should have to be recorded and made public.
Someone educate me on this, I just cannot believe the public can be shut out from the bill writing process by our elected officials in Washington.
I certainly understand issues of National Security, Investigations, etc. that they cannot be made public immediately or have to be kept under wraps for perhaps several years. But simple things such as discussions on getting bills written should be required to be immediately made available to the public.
The real problem we have is that they think WE work for them!!! In that light, why in the world would we think they should share anything of importance with us? After all, we cannot possibly be smart enough to understand the workings of the government much less what is good for us.
Perhaps what we should do is pass a law which says that if a bill will impact more than specific percentage of the economy, then that bill has to be voted on by the citizens of this country before the gov't can proceed! Some may say that this is utterly ridiculous but if you think about it, this is the way our country is going these days. Few people, if any, use good judgement and common sense when they make decisions which impact not only themselves but others as well.
Look at the new texting laws that are being passed by many of the States. Why do we need something like this when it is so painfully obvious that not concentrating on driving a vehicle is dangerous and could kill not only the driver but others as well. Common sense should tell each of us that for the safety of all we should not engage in distracting activities, like texting, reading, putting on makeup, etc. But since there is so little common sense anymore, ridiculous laws are being passed to "modify behavior"!!!
So it only makes sense that in order to reign in our elected officials we will have to pass laws to REQUIRE them to put the issues like health care reform to our vote before they can impose the consequences upon us!!!!
Oh, and by the way, good luck with that solution!!!
Obama calls the plans being proposed by the House and the Senate "his" plan. He hasn't either one, just like he didn't read the Stimulus bill before he signed it. To him, it doesn't matter what the bill(s) say(s), because whatever passes, he and his family won't be subject to it and he can then have his "legacy".
Regardless of his countless denials, this is all about him.
What does Harry Reid care about "transparency"? He didn't promise that; Obama did, not that it matters. And this is the crud they tried to shove down our throats prior to August 1, 2009.
I believe that we can expect the same Senatorial and Congressional eagerness to read and digest every provision of these 1,500 and 2,000 page bills festering in the Senate and House. I'm sure Steny Hoyer, John Conyers and Arlen Specter have all purchased new reading glasses so they can personally read every page of these bills, just like they did last time.
These people who do not listen to the people of the United States are doing a good job of "Anger Management". Have you ever noticed that when you are at the Post Office and cannot get them to help you, that they lower their voice as you raise yours. They pretend to not know the information you are requesting, only because you have not duplicated the sample sentence in their training manual.
We citizens of the United States are at the microphone and will give the congress their travelling papers if they insist on piling on, once we have spoken.
We are tired of the 5% acting like the majority. Let them move to France or the Africa Nations or the Dictatorships of Central and South America to enjoy their life with the celebrities who should also be taking up residence there.
The movie Network was exceptional because "He was mad as hell and was not going to take it anymore", so are the 80% that walk the same walk.
Thank you, LA Mike, OUT………..
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Am sick to death of congress and their machinations. They must go, all of them. Even the ones considered "good" can't be trusted. Transparency, my a__. We have made a start with this recent election and we need to really attack the 2010 elections.
Our real problem in this country is that we have ignored the reponsibility of our right to vote and the Representative's sent to represent, in a very short time, redefine themselves as the Ruler's of the people. They put themselves and their interests above all else. Until we remove those like Reid from the system we can expect little change in behavior.
Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, truly hate the average American. Illegal foreign nationals in the nation are fine with them. They will defend their rights over long time American taxpayers rights any day. I can't think of two more toxic people in politics today. Pelosi serves the illegal alien lobbies,LA RAZA,MALDEF,MECHA,etc. and Reid serves the big Casinos.( illegal alien underpaid slave labor)
As the head goes so does the rest of the body, reid and pelosi are working the strings and obama is following their lead. We must vote in 2010, they need to look for a job, just like the rest of us have been doing.
HAPLESS HARRY,IS NOT COMING BACK TO WASHINGTON.THE RESULTS OF THE OFF YEAR ELECTIONS IN NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY HAVE HIM WONDERING WHAT HAS HE ACCOMPLISHED IN HIS TIME IN WASHINGTON.GOODBY OLD MAN
Reid and Pelosi are both down in the polls and both up for reelection 2010, the tea Parties etc. show that we are mad as hell and not going to take it any more. Last night on Hannity's TV show the panel at Richmond showed a lot of people who voted for Obama 2008, voted for McConnell yesterday, There are a lot of Reps. who will be voted out next year if they support this health bill and the cap and Trade.
Senator Reid seems to have forgotten that his position is one of servitude. He is in Congress to serve the best interest of the American Citizenry. He is not God, nor does he have the powers to hold anything secret from the American People except if it were to place America itself in Danger, and I do not believe that National Health Care falls into that catagory.
Obama is incompetent, immature in his intellect and and a conflicted little boy.
Pelosi is simply a dimwit with obvious psychological issues.
Reid was beaten daily by little girls on the playground as a child and suffers from little man syndrome. He probably wears women's underwear.