-By Warner Todd Huston
Amazingly, neither Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev) nor Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif) want to give Congress or the public much time to read the upcoming Healthcare bills they are rushing through their respective chambers before forcing a “yes” or “no” vote on them.
In a recent interview, Senator Reid was asked if he’d commit to giving the Senate and the public a week to digest any healthcare “reform” bill before he brought the bill up for a vote. Reid however, refused to make such a commitment.
Reid allowed less than two days before forcing a Senate vote on the stimulus bill and many expect him to do the same with any healthcare legislation. He was unapologetic over refusing to allow his fellows or the public to digest the legislation before the vote.
Similarly, Speaker of the House Pelosi refused to commit to allowing a week for any healthcare bill that comes under her purview. Pelosi claimed that the “regular order” is to allow 48 hours for amendments and another day before a vote can be taken.
The president’s expectations for healthcare, including the “public plan” option, is expected to force a government take over of nearly 20 percent of our nation’s economy, yet neither majority leader in Congress will give the public any time to read this bill and figure out what is in it before they rush to judgment.
House Democrats pulled a similar stunt with the recent Cap and Trade bill. At three in the morning on the day that House Democrats hurried up a vote on the bill, 300 pages of amendments was added to the bill in committee. But, even as Democrats were forcing a vote on the bill, no one had ever seen the whole bill because a complete copy of the legislation hadn’t yet been created by anyone.
In essence, Pelosi was forcing a vote on a bill of which an actual copy of the full legislation did not even exist. Outrageously the House voted to pass a bill that did not officially exist.
This is the sort of shenanigans that candidate Barack Obama claimed to stand against to great fanfare and applause. During the campaign Obama promised to allow the country to have five days to read on line every bill he’d sign.
Sadly, Obama has yet to keep his campaign pledge to let Americans see a bill for five days before he signs it. For instance, He signed the SCHIP law only three hours after it left Congress. Neither did he post the omnibus spending bill, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Play Act, in fact nearly a dozen bills have been signed without observing the five-day sunlight promise made by the president on the campaign trail. The sad truth is no bill signing has fulfilled his promise for any “sunlight” or “transparency.”
In the end, the expectation is that in the healthcare bill, we will see one of the most socialist styled laws ever put before Congress pushed through by partisan forces in direct contravention to both good governing and Barack Obama’s own promise of “transparency.”
Why the rush, Mr. President? Why not actually stay true to your own promises on healthcare and transparency? Will you, Mr. President, and your partisan attack dogs in Congress, allow the public and our elected officials to actually read the legislation you want passed before they are forced to vote on it? If not, why not?
Do you have something against people actually knowing what you are trying to slip by them, Mr. President? Do you so hate an informed vote?
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, RedState.com, Human Events Magazine, AmericanDailyReview.com, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
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