What’s In “Obamacare?” You’ll Never Know …

U.S. President Barack Obama’s under-the-radar push to secretly re-insert a “public option” component into the latest socialized medicine scheme is reigniting an important debate in Washington, D.C. – one that has nothing to do with health care.

It’s all about transparency – and not just in a public sense, either.

With trillions of debt dollars flowing out of Washington, D.C., you would think that the people approving this unprecedented barrage of government spending would have some idea of where it was all going.

You’d think that … but you’d be wrong.

For example, you’ll recall that when Congress passed its 1,100-page “stimulus” earlier this year, only one elected official in Washington bothered to attempt reading the text of the massive boondoggle.  Obviously, he didn’t make it through – because Congress voted on the proposal just 13 hours after its final version was made available to lawmakers.

And that was one of the highest profile pieces of legislation ever to come out of Washington …

Among the last-second changes to this so-called “stimulus?”  The raiding of $18 billion that was supposed to go to a small business stabilization fund so that pork could be spread in Democratic districts on projects like Senate Leader Harry Reid’s “mob museum.”

How fitting, right?

We’ve written on this subject in the past, but this tendency to shove through unexamined – and intentionally unexaminable – legislation is not “democracy.”

It’s the political equivalent of gangsters keeping their getaway cars running after stealing from the public trust, literally and figuratively.

That’s why we’ve always supported the efforts of a website called ReadTheBill.org, which is seeking to implement a “72-hour rule” that would require most legislation to be posted online for 72 hours prior to Congress commencing debate.

This sort of 72-hour “review period” is even more critical to the health of our democratic process when you consider the “hook or crook” conduct of the current administration and its Congressional allies.  For example, last month, U.S. Sen. Max Baucus (D-Montana) refused to put the language of its $900 billion socialized medicine proposal on the internet for the public to review.  Obviously, we now know why …

For more on this subject, there’s a great post on GetLiberty.org that has a ton of information on the importance of the 72-hour rule.

Also, it’s worth noting that a number of fiscally conservative S.C. lawmakers are pushing for the same 72-hour-rule here in South Carolina.

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