Senator Says Reading Best Left To Experts

Thursday, August 26, 2010 11:21 AM by Lauren Forbes

At a town hall meeting in Libby, Montana, Sen. Baucus admitted to not having read the healthcare bill before passing it. In response to a Libby resident demanding to know if Sen. Baucus had read the healthcare bill before passing it, Baucus not only took credit for “essentially” writing the healthcare bill that passed but then stating:

 “I don’t think you want me to waste my time to read every page of the health care bill. You know why? It’s statutory language…We hire experts.”

Unfortunately, Baucus is not the only senator who couldn’t be bothered to read the health care overhaul before passing it. Even worse, as the chairman of the Finance Committee, Senator Baucus feels it is a prudent use of tax dollars to ignore his own job and hire “experts” to do it for him. Unfortunately, it is a small wonder that lawmakers continue to emerge claiming to not have read the bill. The behemoth legislation, chock-full of sweetheart deals and wasteful spending, is emblematic of how this Congress had conducted business – behind closed doors and without any of the transparency taxpayers were promised).

In a recent testimony before the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, Americans for Tax Reform president, Grover Norquist pointed out that a five-day waiting period would have at least reduced the cost of the health care bill by exposing some of the nefarious dealings in it and at most could have stopped the thing together. This is because it would have given taxpayers a chance to see the bill before it was voted on, and allow them the opportunity to put pressure on their elected officials. By virtue of the bill being available, it would have exposed the invidious waste, onerous regulations and massive spending that taxpayers, on average, oppose.

Republican Leader John Boehner has proposed a similar idea on America Speaking out that would require bills to be available for three days before a vote could take place. While short of the full five days we feel is necessary to ensure true transparency, a resolution to this effect would be far better than the status quo – opaque politics and a broken promise from Speaker Pelosi.

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