The Virginian-Pilot
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After listening for months to people complain that Congress is moving too quickly on a health care bill, two groups of Senate and House members, including three Virginia lawmakers, say it's time to hit the pause button.
Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia is among eight senators asking that any health care bill and its cost estimates be posted on a Web site for public viewing at least 72 hours before a final Senate vote.
Twenty-one House members, including U.S. Reps. Glenn Nye and Tom Perriello, both Virginia Democrats, say that's not enough.
They are asking that all bills, not just health care measures, be available for public scrutiny at least three days before a House vote.
The two groups, which sent letters to their respective leaders Tuesday, said the changes are needed to promote more public involvement. All the legislators who signed the letters are Democrats except Rep. Dan Burton of Indiana and Sen. Joe Lie-berman of Connecticut.
"Whether or not our constituents agree on the direction of the debate, many are frustrated and lacking accurate information on the emerging proposals in Congress," Webb and seven other senators said in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
"At a time when trust in Congress and the U.S. government is unprecedentedly low, we can begin to rebuild the American people's faith in their federal government through transparency and by actively inviting Americans to participate in the legislative process."
The House members' letter, sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, makes a similar argument and says the advance public notification should apply to all legislation.
Nye, a Democrat whose district includes Virginia Beach and part of Norfolk, said in a statement that he relies on the advice of constituents and it's "essential that everyone has the time to read and understand legislation before it comes to a vote."
During town-hall meetings and other public discussions of health care legislation, many people said they were frustrated that lawmakers were considering 1,000-plus-page bills that hadn't been explained. Some complained that the legal language required in such legislation made them difficult to understand.
Clark Pettig, Nye's spokesman, said that with the additional 72 hours people would have time to study the text and respond to their legislator.
Reid and Hoyer have the authority in their respective chambers to require the 72-hour delay. Offices for the leaders did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
Bill Bartel, (757) 446-2398, bill.bartel@pilotonline.com
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I don't know what you're
I don't know what you're complaining about Chris. The democrats have the whole show now. They can pass anything they want. You have that pinko as Speaker of the House, and you have your 60 votes in the Senate since Taxachusettes changed state law again to replace Kennedy. So as long as The Grand Dragon of the KKK from West Virginia hangs around, you'll still hold the majority.
Not the right answer.
So congress is going to mandate I purchase something or fine and jail me. So how am I suppose to pull another 325 - 350 dollars out of my pocket each month?
Straight from the Kaiser Family Foundation (the libs favorite health source to quote) and their cost calculations based on the various Senate legislative bills. You can choose each proposed bill and get a quote.
The cheapest rate available, after the subsidy, for a single person making 30,000 would be $325 - $350 dollars a month. How is this new expense going to paid? My income is not going to change, my other household bills aren't going to go away, where is this magic extra money? So now I still can't afford insurance and I'm going to face fines (which I can't afford either) of face going to jail?
This is lunacy!
Stall tactics
The Republicans are doing everything they can to stall for their corporate masters. Every other industrialized nation in the world has national health insurance, and they pay HALF per capita what we pay for healthcare. Why? Because they don't have to pay profits and overhead for 150 different insurance companies. Sick people in America are being robbed by evil corporations and their lobbyists.
I agree with aalto
Not only should the public and congressional representatives be able to read the bills on line, but they also should be written where a person of at least a high school education should be able to somewhat understand what they just read, rather than having a degree in Latin or to hire an attorney to translate it. If that's the case then it may as well be written in mandarin chinese. And the way congress seems to continue to borrow money and give them most favored trade status, it's only a matter of time when our bills and laws, will be written in mandarin chinese anyway.
Does it really need to take four paragraphs of text to say one sentence?
Finally Web did something I
Finally Web did something I agree on. But, regardless of the bill I bet he votes for it.
This is stupid
The 72-hour posting is designed specifically for the healthcare industry, not for the sake of openness. To sell it as if it were for the sake of transparency is a lie. But hey, people are stupid, just look how many people believe the lies spouted by Besty MCCullough...
Full texts of the proposed bills available online??? NO...
...nothing could be further from the truth. Anything online does NOT reflect the "mark ups"--some of which are being done by Congressional staffers without the Senator or Representative even reading them. So, a 23-year old at a computer can make changes to this and We, The People won't get to see them the promised days before the vote and most, if not all, of those in Congress won't even read them before they vote on them. It's a travesty, and it's another BROKEN PROMISE from Barack Obama and the Democrats.
How long?
“After listening for months to people complain that Congress is moving too quickly on a health care.” How many “months” is “too quickly?” Republicans would prefer “never.”
I also note that it is Democrats who are calling for openness and transparency, not Republicans (with the sole exception of Rep. Burton).
As others have noted, the full texts of the proposed bills are readily available online.
And.....
Can we get a commitment they they will also READ the entire bill? Every word, every page? Personnally? Not have a brief of the highlights from some aid.
I doubt it!
"Jim Webb NEVER ran from a fight in his life." ???
SECRETARY OF NAVY QUITS IN PROTEST WEBB OPPOSES CUTTING OF FLEET
The Boston Globe | February 23, 1988| WASHINGTON
Navy Secretary James Webb resigned in protest yesterday over a decision by Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci that would prevent the Navy from achieving a 600-ship fleet by 1990.
"Webb resigned from that position [Secretary of the Navy] after losing a long battle to block a reduction in the size of the Navy at a time when the Pentagon was under orders to cut its budget."
NY Times, October 7, 2009: "He was a Republican until he switched party affiliations over his opposition to President Bush's policies, primarily the war in Iraq."
When he doesn't get what he wants, he picks up his marbles and goes home.