Bill unnecessarily long and complex

The House health care bill, H.R. 3200, was rushed to a vote before any member could read and understand the consequences of the language. Why?

Following is an excerpt from an Aug. 15 guest column (Iowa City Press-Citizen) by Norm Pawlewski, former commissioner of health for Iowa under Gov. Bob Ray: “Each of the bills under consideration is more than 1,000 pages of bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo. The co-author of the House bill, Rep. John Conyers, Democrat of Michigan, said he hasn't read the bill because it would take days and at least two lawyers to interpret it for him. And we are expected to embrace this folly and trust these Washington nitwits with one of the most critical of services we rely on to keep us functioning, productive and alive? I'm sorry folks, but I don't trust Washington to do the right thing, especially after the mortgage, banking, auto manufacturing and economic stimulus debacles.”

If the bill is to tough for Conyers, the co-author, to understand, either Conyers is incompetent (as well as many of his colleges) or the bill is unnecessarily long and complex. Perhaps, I'm thinking, both.

Does our president expect his supporters to fall in lock-step with his agenda? Isn't this the kind of blind support Democrats accused Republicans of during the Bush years?

John Stiegelmeyer

Vinton