Editorial - 30Sep09
Democrats Say No To Transparency
P resident Obama, an advocate of transparency measures during his time in the Senate made a pledge to post bills on the White House Web site for comment at least five days before he signs them. He has so far failed to live up to the promise. Evidently, now that he's the president, transparency isn't, well, quite so desirable.
Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) proposed that the public have 72 hours to examine the final language of the $900 billion health care reform bill along with a cost analysis from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on the committee's website before the vote. In other words, understand the language of a bill, and what it's going to cost, before being forced to vote on it. Sound unreasonable? Evidently, to the Democrats in power it does, because they shot down the proposal yesterday. What's in the bill that they're trying to hide from the public? We won't know until after it's passed. But if they had a good bill, one that was palatable to the American public, they would certainly not be afraid of a review period prior to voting on it. They're hiding something, likely lots of things, and they don't seem to think that the people who are paying for this health care plan have a right to see the language of the bill. Arrogance.
The Democrats also shot down a proposal that would force Medicare and other government health care recipients to prove legal status when applying for benefits. Why was this voted down? Was Joe Wilson correct that the Democrat's intend to furnish benefits to illegal aliens? It certainly appears so. He appears more a prophet than a pariah at this point, because as it turns out the Democrats are trying very hard to make sure illegal aliens can take advantage of our health care system. Folks who never paid a dime of Medicare taxes will be competing with grandma and grandpa for Medicare. Isn't that nice? It now appears that Obama was lying when he said otherwise, or he was out of touch with his own Congressional leadership.
Obama promised us, as did Pelosi, a transparent government. Yet the Democrats' in power continue to rebuff efforts to allow a measly 3 days to review any bill before it is voted on. They continue to ram through legislation that's counter to the desires of the American people. Congressional approval ratings are at an all time low, and they couldn't care less. Which begs the question. Assuming the Republicans have a very good 2010 election, which is all but a certainty at this point, how difficult will it be for them to roll back or reverse the very bad initiatives being rammed through right now? I can't find that answer anywhere.
Editor - bethesite.com
