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Jewish World Review
Sept. 7, 2010/ 28 Elul, 5770
Irresponsible Dems, Incomprehensible Bills
By
Arnold Ahlert
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
At a recent town-hall meeting in Montana, Democrat Max Baucus, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance and primary architect of the health care bill passed by Congress, was asked if he had read the bill in its entirety. "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," Baucus answered. "We hire experts."
If that quote sounds familiar, perhaps that's because it's remarkably similar to one made just over a year ago by House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich) regarding the same bill. "I love these members, they get up and say, 'Read the bill,'" offered Conyers. "What good is reading the bill if it's a thousand pages and you don't have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?"
While it is obvious that the level of corruption in Washington, D.C. has reached a point where two prominent Democrat Congressmen feel no need to hide their utter lack of responsibility, the far more troubling aspect of both statements is the fact that both men have admitted that the health care bill they voted into law was beyond their comprehension, absent the help of "experts" and "two lawyers," respectively.
That would be the very same bill that had to be passed, according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, "so that you can find out what's in it…" Once again, if that too sounds familiar, perhaps that's because it's remarkably similar to what Senator Chris Dodd said with regard to Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which is also over two thousand pages long:
"No one will know until this is actually in place how it works."
How does one comply with such laws? More importantly, how can ordinary Americans be held accountable for provisions in the health care bill, the financial reform bill, or any other bill written in "statutory language," when the authors of the bills themselves don't understand them? Apparently Congressmen Baucus and Conyers (and very likely many others) think the public should be expected to plow through thousands of pages of arcane verbiage--an effort these two have publicly announced is a waste of their time--or be forced to hire experts to do so at our own expense.
For perspective sake, consider the Constitution of the United States. The document upon which the entire foundation of our legal system rests, was written on four pieces of parchment paper. Using today's common fonts and standard-size 8.5"x 11" paper, the Constitution is approximately thirty-two pages long--and written in language that every reasonably educated American can understand.
How did we get from 32 pages of common English to thousands of pages of statutory gibberish?
Moral confusion. It is a confusion which gained substantial traction when Americans swapped their traditional sources of moral guidance--religious leaders--for their currently fashionable sources, lawyers and therapists. Once right and wrong was transformed into "legal and illegal" or "well and unwell," it became necessary to codify more and more of what was once considered common sense and common decency. An obvious offshoot of this reality is that we have become the most litigious nation in the history of man--which begets even more codification as a means of avoiding such litigation.
The realities of such excess are daunting. Did Americans ever envision a day when diving boards would be removed from public pools, or kids-league baseball seasons would be cancelled for lack of affordable liability insurance? Did we ever envision a day when the same city that put up the Empire State Building in fourteen months might be forced to endure the complete construction of a mosque before the re-building of the World Trade Center, which has languished for nearly a decade?
As I've mentioned previously, the ditch where the Twin Towers once stood is a testament to our self-inflicted paralysis. So is the Deutsche Bank Building, which is still standing, despite being slated for demolition as a result of irreparable damage from the same attack. Due to both litigation and byzantine regulation, we have reached a point where we can't even put up--or knock down--a building is less than nine years.
One would like to believe the kind of bills Congress currently writes is due to such moral confusion, as opposed to anything Machiavellian. But it is no secret that the Democrat party, using government as their vehicle, yearns to control as many aspects of American life as they possibly can. And while the above quotes by prominent Democrats may seem ludicrous taken solely at face value, they reveal a chilling possibility: innocent Americans can be turned into law-breakers, even if they're paying attention to what government is doing.
No one is under greater control by the state than someone convicted of a crime. That control can range from as little as a ticket for a minor infraction to as great as life imprisonment or the death penalty for serious offenses. And as most Americans know, "ignorance of the law is no excuse" for exemption from its consequences.
Yet what if a law is not merely unknown, but unknowable? Both The Trial by Franz Kafka and 1984 by George Orwell offer fictional glimpses of totalitarian societies where absolute power derives from unknown and unknowable law. Max Baucus and John Conyers have made public statements which suggest that such fiction has become reality. But aside from the conservative blogosphere making hay of such outrageousness, most Americans remain unaware of perhaps the greatest threat facing our nation today:
If the law is unknowable, so is the extent of the power the state may wield to enforce it.
One more thing: it is worth remembering that the "lawyers" and "experts" Congress relies on to write laws are unelected by the public. And while there are certain instances where jargon may be necessary, such as laws written with regard to science or medicine, there is absolutely no reason why most Congressional legislation can't be written in plain English.
If our elected officials are so contemptuous of the American public that they can't write bills even educated people can understand--or be bothered to read the bills they vote into law--Americans should throw them out of office.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment on JWR Contributor Arnold Ahlert's column, by clicking here.
Previously:
09/02/10: War Weary Americans vs. Implacable Islamists
08/31/10: A Dream Debased
08/25/10: American Bigots Versus Media Propagandists
08/23/10: Recovery Bummer
08/19/10: An Unholy Alliance of Radicals
08/16/10: You've Lost America, Mr. President
08/13/10: The Twin Towers of Progressive Disconnect
08/11/10: A Far Better National Discussion
08/09/10: It's Only One Dead Nun
08/06/10: Incremental Tyranny
08/04/10: Ground Zero Mosque: Context Counts
08/02/10: The Arizona Ruling: a Gift for November
07/29/10: The United Cities of America
07/26/10: JournoList: Coordinated Ideological Bankruptcy
07/20/10: Go For Broke Or Get Out of the Way
07/14/10: You're a Liberal/Progressive if You Believe…
07/12/10: $33-an-hour--For Sleeping On the Job
07/08/10: Extortionist Government
07/06/10: Commerce Clause Totalitarians
07/01/10: Another Public School Travesty in MA
06/30/10: Calling YOUR Bluff, Mr. President
06/28/10: A Trifecta of Progressive Corruption
06/23/10: Plug the Darn Hole --- In Our Border
06/21/10: Our Empty-Suit-in-Chief
06/16/10: Betraying Our Children
06/14/10: Who Gets the Benefit of the Doubt?
06/07/10: Politically Correct Warfare
06/01/10: Bill Maher's Black President
05/25/10: A Mosque At Ground Zero
05/23/10: Libs Stand Tall --- For Mexico
05/19/10: The 'Unintended Consequences' of Liberalism
05/17/10: 'Los' Suns: Stuck on Stupido
05/12/10: Union Audacity: Yes We Will!
05/10/10: Greeks, Leaks and and Double-Speak
05/05/10: Twelve Million Illegals --- or Thirty?
05/02/10: Republicans: Playing Not to Lose Doesn't Cut It
04/28/10: Arizona: Progressivism's Waterloo?
04/26/10: Son of Amnesty
04/22/10: Mortgages and Moral Meltdowns
04/20/10: Bashing Christians Or Gays?
04/15/10: Personal Integri-tea
04/12/10: Fools, Tools and Ghouls
04/08/10: (Tea) Party On
04/05/10: The Triumph of Mediocrity
04/02/10: Two For the Road
03/29/10: The Innate Immorality of Liberalism
03/24/10: The Art of War
03/22/10: I Want My Country Back
03/18/10: A Perpetual Process
03/17/10: American Exhibitionists
03/15/10: A Light Bulb Moment of Clarity
03/10/10: Little Things Mean A Lot
02/03/10: Budgetary Fork in the Road
02/01/10: Liberal Economic Illiteracy
01/27/10: Roe-ing and Wade-ing Back to Reason
01/25/10: Arrogance When Up, Denial When Down
01/20/10: Connecting the Educational Dots
01/19/10: The Next Tea Party?
01/15/10: The Myth That Keeps on Giving
01/13/10: Airport Security Begins Away From the Airport
01/11/10: Secrets and Lies
01/08/10: Embracing Bigotry or Rejecting Bullying?
01/06/10: Hanging by an Ideological Thread
01/04/10: Our Wonderama Bureaucracy
12/30/09: A Day Off
12/28/09: Dangerous Myths
12/25/09: I, Me, Mine
12/23/09: A Very Harry Christmas
12/21/09: My Opinon
12/18/09: The Party of Repeal
12/15/09: Privileged Exemption
11/30/09: Settled Science and Unsettled Children
11/30/09: American Sharia Law
11/23/09:The Trial (Travesty) of the Century
11/04/09: American Vampires and Their Political Enablers
11/01/09: Opting Out of Insanity?
10/28/09: Cell Phones Cause Brain Cancer. Brain Required
10/26/09: Communism: Nazism With Better PR
10/21/09: Just Asking
10/16/09: Cost Projections vs. Actual Costs, or Hope and Change vs. Reality
10/14/09: News you can use …
10/07/09: Incremental Insidiousness
10/05/09: MIA: Common Sense and Common Decency
09/30/09: Iran: Bad Options and Unpreparedness
09/21/09: Crying Racism: the Last Refuge of Scoundrels
09/11/09: 9/11 Cannot Be Sanitized
09/08/09: Truthers and Consequences
09/01/09: A Paper Trail Challenge for the Mainstream Media
08/31/09: Drowning in Amorality
08/26/09: The Republican Recovery Program
© 2010, Arnold Ahlert
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