Happy (belated) Constitution Day! On Thursday, the U.S. Constitution turned 222 years old. The six-page parchment document is the longest-standing written foundation of any government in modern history. What always amazes me when I read the Constitution is its relative simplicity. Key points and rules are clearly spelled out in a concise and orderly document.
The literary works of the modern bureaucracy, however, do not seem to follow suit. Especially those of recent congresses. For example, H.R. 3200 (the Democrats' main healthcare bill; full PDF here) is curently a whopping 1017 pages! With a little research, it is easily discovered that most of the 111th Congress's large, controversial -- and, as many would argue, hastily written -- bills are over 1,000 pages. (The stimulus bill, the massive climate bill passed in June, President Bush's 2007 federal budget bill, and the Clinton health bill in 1993 headline the list of recent notable bills over 1,000 pages.) Slate (where you'll notice I don't often link) actually has an interesting article on the matter here. (It tries to say 1,000+ page bills aren't unusual, however, which isn't exactly true.)
The really big question here is this: if the founding fathers managed to set in motion the government of the United States in only six pages (including the Bill of Rights and a letter of transmittal), how can it even be possible to bring forward a healthcare bill that takes over a thousand pages to print? How likely is it that any congressperson (besides the bill's author, Rep. John Dingell, D-MI) will even have the time (not to mention the desire) to read such a thing? And who knows what kind of unhelpful propositions could be snuck into such a bill at an unhealthy hour of the night? If Congress is stubborn enough to pass yet another multi-billion dollar bill without carefully examining it, (don't forget the results of the stimulus bill or the financial bailout) they deserve to go down in history as the most wasteful Congress ever.
Constitution Birthday Present: Constitution Quiz at ConstitutionFacts.com
If you enjoyed this post, be sure to subscribe to our RSS Feed! Then you can receive our posts in your feed reader or email.
