House Democrats Voting to NOT Read the Bills

Despite polls saying that over 80% of voters would like Congress to post legislation for review prior to votes, Senate Democrats earlier this week voted to do the exact opposite.

In fact, Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee (the Committee currently most responsible for shaping health care reform legislation) voted to continue advancing legislation to the Senate floor that is neither in its final form (as in even they haven’t read the bill) nor been scored by the Congressional Budget Office (no one knows what it will really cost).

You see, at least according to Democrats on the Finance Committee, ordinary Americans would think the legislation too complex and showing it to them ahead of time would only confuse us all.

As such, Finance Democrats claim “tradition” to keep the text of this massive policy overhaul away form the American public for as long as possible.

The Heritage Foundation has an informative post on the whole situation and the vote here. This is their conclusion:

Right now, the media that is covering every twist and turn of the committee’s “mark up” has ignored this quaint Senate tradition and what it means. Weren’t we taught after all, in our high school civics classes that lawmakers work on laws, not vague concepts? And where is all the analysis of the implications of this tradition on the calls for transparency? And what of the growing demands from citizens that lawmakers read the bill before voting for it? What if there is no bill to read?