Sausage Making and the Health Care Bill

An August 1 Washington Post article quotes Rep. John B. Lawson (Conn.), head of the House Democratic Caucus saying: "Two things that shouldn't be observed: the sausage being made and a bill becoming law." The article described the messy process involved, but didn't quite live up to the old School House Rock "I'm Just a Bill" video.

Here are some excerpts from the article, with my comments:

Although everyone talks about "the bill", or the "Obama plan", there is no such thing yet. Right now, there are several versions being worked on by several different groups within Congress:

"Both chambers have, between them, three health-care reform bills -- one in the House and two in the Senate. Only one of the Senate bills has won committee approval...The huge cut-and-paste job now goes to the House Rules Committee, to be smoothed out into a final product to send to the House floor...Almost every major provision of health reform remains very much in play."

Each member of Congress fights to get their pieces of legislation in. They need to make sure the bill reflects their personal convictions and/or those of their constituents, resulting in many amendments:

"The bill, a work in progress called H.R. 3200, is already phone-book thick...Some 250 amendments had appeared by Wednesday night, and the number jumped to 350 by Thursday afternoon. The amendments filled 39 file boxes on chairs, under desks and in the aisles."

There is a great picture on the Washington Post website of a legislative aide surrounded by boxes and boxes of paper containing just the amendments.

In spite of President Obama's promises of a more accountable and transparent administration that would broadcast all of the health care debate on TV:

"All week, there were closed-door meetings among disparate ideological factions. The negotiations are invisible not only to the media and the public, but also to most other members of Congress."

Much of the fighting is between Democrats, who are struggling to craft a final bill, in spite of controlling the White House, and both houses of Congress:

"Democrats have large majorities in both chambers, but they have discovered the perils of being a party that yokes together Northern California liberals and Deep South good ol' boys."

But, even if there was only one version, and all members of Congress read it, they still wouldn't necessarily understand it:

"the bills are not exactly beach reading. They are legal documents crammed with legislative coding, sentence fragments and assorted gibberish that modifies laws already on the books somewhere. To really understand what a bill says, you'd need to have the existing laws memorized.

Here's a fairly typical passage from H.R. 3200:

Section 1834(a)(7)(A)(iii) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395m(a)(7)(A)(iii)) is amended

(1) in the heading, by inserting 'CERTAIN COMPLEX REHABILITATIVE' after 'OPTION FOR'; and

(2) by striking 'power-driven wheelchair' and inserting 'complex rehabilitative power-driven wheelchair recognized by the Secretary as classified within group 3 or higher.'

And that goes on for a thousand pages."

Is it really a surprise that there is so much confusion over what is in "the bill"? When Americans claim they trust Congressmen only slightly more than used car salesmen, should we trust them when they say something is, or isn't in there, especially when it's constantly changing and so complex?

At the end of the article, they describe the truly scary part. After all the potential amendments and versions are considered, after all the town halls and all the "read the bill!" rhetoric, congressional leaders (i.e. a small number of Democrats) get to re-write the bill and make a version that everyone will vote on - possibly within a few hours. As happened with the carbon cap-and-trade bill, someone could add on a massive amendment at this point in the process.

"Before either chamber can vote on a bill, the committee chairmen, along with congressional leaders, will have to merge the disparate versions into a single bill to bring to the floor. Whatever is passed by the two chambers must then be reconciled again in "conference."

The conference committee would then produce a final bill that would have to be voted on by each chamber. If passed, the bill would go to the president. If he found it acceptable, he would sign it.

And, simple as that, it would be the law of the land."

No wonder the legislative process is compared to the making of sausage. With all these things in mind, consider:

1) Obama is not keeping his promises of transparency and pushed very hard to rush this through before the August recess, making people think he has something to hide. It seems he doesn't want everyone to know the ingredients of the sausage,
2) Obama, Barney Frank and others are on record as being in favor of things they currently claim to be against, such as a single-payer system, reducing their credibility,
3) The 24-hour news cycle and the internet have made more people aware of how the legislative sausage is made,
4) Pelosi and other leaders in Congress have a recent history of rushing things through and making last minute changes, so people don't trust Congress not to change the bill.

Ronald Reagan said "A government bureaucracy is the closest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this Earth." If this passes, there will be absolutely no way to reverse it, whether it works or not. This is a big part of why so many people are scared of this bill.