If I hear a Republican say one more time the length of the health care bill, and now Dodd's draft bank reform bill at 1,136 pages is too long (and therefore a problem) I swear I am going to go "postal." I mean I know the Republicans will bitch, moan, and complain about anything to deflect talking about the issues, but my gosh this bullshit should get them laughed off of any television show they appear on.
The other day I read there were 237 millionaires in Congress, therefore I'd think they'd have some clue how the world works if not from a political point-of-view, at least from a business and legal angle. But alas, not so sure they do. Much more about why I think this is the case and more of my rant below the fold.
Have these folks ever signed a lease for corporate office space, a will, a NDA (non-disclosure agreement), a $50,000 campaign advertising contract, or for many of the Republicans a prenuptial agreement? I mean these pretty basic documents can run dozens of pages.
I know most of these Republicans have paid to run polls, conduct focus groups, and conduct mall intercepts (jargon for on the street interviews). Those reports can run more than a 100 pages.
Or how about the Republican that completed the documents to attempt to secure a position in the Bush administration. My gosh those are not just a page or two. Or what about all the Senators that have hired a few consultants to look at them running for President, think if they pay a few hundred thousand dollars they get a five page document? Come on!
Complex issues from a business and legal point-of-view can take more than just a page or two to outline. It is just the world we live in. I know that. You know that. And of course they know it as well.
Heck, when I worked at ad agencies I might have a client with a $10M annual budget. It would take us around 75 pages to explain how we'd spend that money (and that doesn't include all the supporting documents). It just takes a few pages to explain in detail the who, what, where, when, and how of how we'd spend $10M of their money.
So that it takes about 1,000 pages to reform health care, which accounts for 16% of our GDP either directly or indirectly isn't remotely surprising. Dodd trying to reform a multiple trillion dollar industry, same darn thing.
And what pisses me off the most is these darn Republicans seem to want to make us think they take this "huge" bill back to their office and they are sitting in there by themselves with just a few interns answering their phones, when in fact they have staffs in the dozens (which of course we as taxpayers fund).
They have numerous folks that make their living dealing with legislative affairs. If a person sits on a finance, education, or agriculture committee, they have folks that know those topics like the back of their hand. It is their job to know the issues, understand the process, and educate the elected person they work for.
Then of course they have untold other resources, be it the Office of Management and Budget, General Accounting Office, or Congressional Research Service (just to name a few). Heck when I lived on Capital Hill in DC I used the Library of Congress as my local library, and it was made very clear if you spent anytime there that any request you had for information ALWAYS came after a request from a Congressional office.
This isn't rocket science to comprehend why these documents are long and detailed and they need to be called on it. We seem to let them get away with the most stupid, petty bullshit and it is pissing me off to no end.