We have all seen the motion picture and televised legal dramas. One side is seeking important information and the other is attempting to keep that same information hidden. The court orders full disclosure…and what happens? The side wanting to keep a particular topic hidden provides the opponent with thousands and thousands of pages containing useless information. The important words are hidden deep inside everything that was placed on the table.
Isn't this the same tactic being used by Congress today? A healthcare reform bill, renamed a healthcare insurance reform bill is offered to the public that is 1117 typewritten pages long. Since the average typewritten page contains about 250 words that means the bill before any new amendments are added is already more than 280,000 words long. Those searching for its true meaning must dig deep into the pages to locate where the essence of the bill lies hidden, before they can make rational decisions.
It is estimated that the average person writing technical papers can generate between 1,000 and 1,500 written words a day of good researched text. We all know that Congress spends as little time as possible in Washington. It would be generous to say they have spent 150 days at work since the new Administration was formed in January of this year. With that as a base point, Congress would need to have generated more than 1800 words a day of well researched text to create the current bill being circulated. That would mean the Democrat majority, since Republicans were not invited to participate, would have been required to contribute all 280,000 well researched words to make up this grand total. Considering the average number of good researched word work that can be generated, this would mean the Democrats in the House of Representatives would have been required to spend 186 to 280 days of work since January doing nothing but healthcare research and development of text. And they didn't put that much time on the job. If you believe they spent all of their working days doing nothing but healthcare…you deserve anything they can pass into law.
Any thinking individual will realize this massive text is the combined work of lobbyists, lawyers, unions, pharmaceutical groups and other special interests that feel they can profit from nationalized healthcare legislation.
Congressmen and women, who spend little time reading anything and less time writing their own copy, did not assemble it. It was put together with cut and paste input by an army of staff personnel, each of whom has had the opportunity to mold the words in the particular direction he or she desires.
Americans, before accepting this 1117 page monstrosity would do well to reflect on some of the very important documents that impact their lives.
The Constitution of the United States of America was created through the input of 55 delegates from the 13 states in a Constitutional Assembly that met for 116 days from May 25 to September 17, 1787. It contains just 4,543 words, which would average out to less than 83 words per delegate and we know many of them had little input on the final document.
Even the most significant document in the history of our nation was very short for having a message of such significance. The Declaration of Independence is the reason we are all here today as Americans, yet it is only 1,458 words in length.
Those who believe in the Word of God as the ultimate law could also remind us that The Ten Commandments, written in the English language, contains only 331 words.
With so much at stake, do we really need to accept this massive healthcare reform/healthcare insurance reform legislation designed to confuse and deceive, rather than protect and serve the American people? Most would answer…no. Good, meaningful legislation should always be clear, concise and in a form the average American can readily understand.
Copyright ©2009 Thomas D. Segel