Representative John Conyers (D-MI) from Michigan sort of gets it. You see, Conyers asked recently what good was reading the bills before Congress when they’re 1,000 pages and it takes two lawyers to understand them. Now, he was actually mocking those people in this country who have this silly idea that Congressmen should actually do their jobs, but he’s right. What is the point?
Well, first, the point is that THAT IS THE POINT. No one can understand the laws as they’re written, so they’re obviously too complex. Even attorneys disagree what laws actually mean, so what hope do us mere mortals have? I mean, let’s face it. I spent far too long in the public school system to even have a prayer of comprehending those laws without a large amount of additional schooling.
I’ve been an advocate of the Read The Bills Act from DownsizeDC.org. I am still a big fan of it, and I really think we need something like this more now than ever. One of the benefits would be laws that regular people can understand, at least on the surface, and therefore actually follow the blooming things. As it is, no one is 100% sure of what is actually part of the cap and trade bill, or what’s part of the House healthcare “reform” bill. As it is, most only know what they’ve read was in there by some mainstream media outlet.
Now, before we get to hard on the regular Joes out there, let’s just remember that some of these bills are 1,200-1,300+ in length of some of the driest language imaginable. Since it doesn’t make sense, it’s virtually impossible to push yourself through the horror that is a bill in the United States Congress. Frankly, I’d rather peel my finger nails back one by one and then soak my fingers in lemon juice than have to read something like the cap and trade bill. Of course, that’s part of the plan, ain’t it?
Ayn Rand once argued that it’s impossible for a government to push around the innocent. Instead, oppressive governments needed to turn everyone into criminals in order to have leverage on them. While I’m not sure the logic really pans out, it sure seems like that’s the plan sometimes, doesn’t it? It’s like they took Atlas Shrugged and instead of taking it as a work of fiction, decided it was really an instruction manual…but not the important parts that detail how things actually should work.
Regardless of where you stand on the political spectrum though, it shouldn’t matter. Reading the bills is our protection from a government that tries to use smoke and mirrors to hide their intent. Making it clear what they’re passing means that it’s very clear and we can all see what’s going on. We won’t have to wonder what they’re doing, we’ll know!
So, Representative Conyers, we do understand exactly what you’re saying. What you don’t get is that we feel the same way and we’re the people having to live under these laws!!!
