What's in a bill?

Let me start by acknowledging the fact that I have been remiss in my posting. This was one of my concerns about starting a blog. I was worried that I would not have the time to do it everyday or maybe not have the desire. I will try to do better. With that said lets get to it shall we.

I have a simple question to ask the country. Is it to much to ask of our elected officials to read the bills that they are considering making law? You might ask, what are you talking about? Surely members of Congress read the bills. Well, I am here to tell you that they don't. I don't even know if they read the Cliff notes version and if they do I don't think it would be much help. Can you even imagine how much crap can be stuffed and sneaked into a bill that is over a 1,000 pages long? So, even if you have an abridged version or someone giving you the highlights of the bill there is no way of knowing all of the hidden agendas in a bill. I do not think this is something new. I am sure that many in Congress have relied on staff members to read the bills and give bullet points of the bill. My concern as of late though is that these massive bills like the Stimulus, Cap and Trade and the so called Healthcare Reform are too big to even comprehend if you do read them. It has been made obvious that these bills are not being read. The Stimulus bill was barely off the presses before the vote was held. It would be virtually impossible to read the bill in the amount of time that was given. If there is any doubt in your minds about the mindset of your elected officials just check out Congressman John Conyers. He has no idea why he should bother himself with reading bills.

http://www.cnsnews.com/public/Content/article.aspx?RsrcID=51610&print=on

Wake up America! These are the people that are making the laws. Do you want someone who does not see the point of reading the legislation that they are imposing on us running our country?

And so it begins...

My wife has told me repeatedly that I should start a blog as a way to express my concerns about our country. I have thought about it on occasion and I have even been a guest blogger on my wife's blog, but there has been a myriad of excuses that I have given to myself to not start. They included the obvious reasons like the lack of time and not wanting to start a new commitment. There were a lot of other reasons as well. First and foremost would be opening myself up to criticism from those with divergent views. Once you start espousing your political views it seems to turn into open season. Beyond criticism I have fear of reprisal, you just never know if someone will take their views to far. I feel that I will be particularly vulnerable to these issues because I am not a left or right winger. I think that both sides have problems and that the two party system is broken.

So basically, it is my intent to post about an item that I feel like on any given day. There are too many issues going on daily for me to possibly cover or give commentary on all issues on any given day. I will do my best to make sure any comments I make are based on fact and not conjecture. I will also try to be as grammatically correct as possible. I am telling you now that I am not a journalist, writer or anything other than a citizen of a country in trouble. So keep that in mind before you comment and attack me. I would just like to have a good honest debate about current affairs.