Obama Time

This time we are going to go over yet another broken promise by President Obama ... well no we need some more background than that .... so lets start with the words from the House Chairman about the Health Care Reform Bill (over 1000pages at last count):
" ... I love these members that get up and say "read the bill" (in raspy voice). What good is reading the bill if its a thousand pages and you don't have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill. " John Conyers (D-MI)
Yeah I kind of think that's the whole point!!

But this shouldn't be an issue in the long run because during the campaign Obama promised to post the bills online for 5 days before he signed them into law ... right? remember that? so the public would have time to get to their representatives to have them contact the President and let him know what the public wanted? right?

well, not really ....

the White House says they will only make the preliminary bills (before all the rewrites & admendments) available before they go for a vote. oh and there was no mention either as to a time frame as to how long before the bill hits the floor the public will have to view it ....

so it could be 2 days ..... 2 hours ..... 2 minutes ... or a whole whopping 2 seconds.

Is anyone else tired of congress passing bills and then going "well I didn't know that was in there when I voted on it" .... here's an idea --

How about a rule that says ... and it needs to be a rule and not just a promise ... that bills need to have at least 48 hours of open debate before passing? so that people can actually hear what's in it? or one that says that a full draft of the actual bill - the one they will actually vote upon - needs to be in individual congreesmen/women's hands a full 48 or 72 hours before it can be voted on? any admendments restarts the clock.

Its hard to say you didn't know - if you have had it on your desk for 4 or 5 days there's no reason to not to know what's in it!

problem is - the dems can't do that .... else they would never get the programs they want because too much of the public would start to change their minds about the party.