by Mark Silva
This is what passes for drama in Washington:
Rep. John Shimkus, the Illinois Republican who walked out toward the end of the president's address to a joint session of Congress yet still won an invitation to play basketball at the White House, is reading the Democrats' House health-care bill.
In public.
This is the bill whose main attribute, as FOX News Channel's Chris Wallace noted on Sunday, is that it weighs 20 pounds.
Shimkus is more than half-way through the bill, his office says.
And this evening, at 5:30 pm EST (Eastern Swamp Time), Shimkus will continue his reading in a public setting -- in the Republican Reading Room of the Longworth Building.
Refreshments will be served.
Shimkus also is tweeting on the bill as he goes.
(But no, that's not the health-care bill above that Shimkus is reading: The congressman read to children for Jump Start's "Read for the Record" on Capitol Hill on Oct. 8. (Photo by Paul Morigi / Images for Jumpstart)
Comments
I thought president Obama was going to put this and all other legislation up for a vote, during his term, on CNN?
What happened to the Obama promise of Transparency? Looks like the Republican's have to show this administration what transparency means, how shameful!
It's better to read what's actually in the proposed legislation than to give hopium speeches and rhetorical observations.
The Sheeple go BAHH!
Lather, rinse, repeat little bill & Big Don!
BRING TRANSPARENCY TO THE WHITE HOUSE AND CONGRESS NOW! TRUTHFUL & WHOLE!
Posted by: springfieldd | November 3, 2009 12:19 PM
The Swamp still hasn't linked to the text of the 20-lb., 1990 page House ObamaCare bill. If I were a Democrat, I wouldn't want the public to read it. The $1.2 (more likely $1.5) trillion bill creates 111 new government programs and bureaucracies. The bill creates a bunch of new or increased taxes.
The bill is even more massive, and less comprehensible, than the 1500-page Senate bill!
I pity the politicians who try to read it.
Posted by: Change in 2009 | November 3, 2009 12:34 PM
1,990 damn pages long. If u are not sick, u will be sick when this is rammed down every available orifice of your public body.
Posted by: Django - N Exile In/Around the 30th Parallel | November 3, 2009 1:41 PM
1990 pages and 20lbs of paper...........I prefer the republican plan written on the back of a napkin. Talk about transparency? The republican plan is so transparent you can't see it.
Posted by: bill r. | November 3, 2009 2:14 PM
The Party of Gimmicks is back !! "Crash" McCain didn't get it, yet the Party of No wants to try his approach, one more time !! Can you believe these incompetents !! They have brought back Neut Getrich's playbook and it states: Let's shut down the government. Let's stomp our feet, throw tantrums, call President Obama any and every name, we know will do him the most harm, and still insist we are the good, real Americans. Can they, the Republican-Libertarians, get anymore delusional ?? You betcha, says their next candidate for president, ex-Governor Pahlin !! As soon as she gets back from her walk to Russia, she will announce her candidacy !!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, IL | November 3, 2009 2:38 PM
Django- Reading bills and legislation is part of a Congressman's job. That's what staffs are for. Maybe you were unaware of that. Shimkus is an opportunist tool who is probably incapable of comprehending the bill anyway. Nevertheless, the GOP has no ideas, no plans, no visions, nothing to offer the American people. They are liars ans self servicing hypocrites.
Posted by: Doug R. | November 3, 2009 2:46 PM
You are clueless in your hate little bill.
If you had a brain of any size and the audacity to use it, you just might find the truth is in the "napkin". The one you blew your nose into this morning, yeah that one that said, "don't look here for magical answers".
Posted by: springfieldd | November 3, 2009 2:54 PM
http://www.tnr.com/sites/default/files/House%20Bill.pdf
Change in 2009,
Here's the link to the bill. Shimkis has a good head start on you, but if you're as smart as you think you are, you should be able to catch up and pass him by and have a valid opinion regarding the content shortly.
Now, good luck finding the Republican sponsored bill.
Posted by: kg123 | November 3, 2009 3:11 PM
Django- Reading bills and legislation is part of a Congressman's job. That's what staffs are for. Maybe you were unaware of that. Shimkus is an opportunist tool who is probably incapable of comprehending the bill anyway. Nevertheless, the GOP has no ideas, no plans, no visions, nothing to offer the American people. They are liars ans self servicing hypocrites.
Posted by: Doug R. | November 3, 2009 2:46 PM
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Doug R., I am aware of all of those fine, venerable responsibilities. Let’s just do a little basic math here based on 1,990 damn pages and the often thrown around time period of 72 hrs. That is 27.6 damn pages each hour, around the clock. That is 0.46 damn pages over 4,320 minutes. That is a damn page every 2.17 mins. That is a lot of non-stop damn reading, with no pictures of airplanes, guitars, or pretty Latinas. Who can get through something like this and still retain their sanity?
The bigger issue, Doug R., is not the mathematically improbability of reading all of this load of crap, but what may be contained therein. Please think about that. There are probably all kinds of special crap conveniently inserted for special business interests. I don’t care if they are democrat business interests or Republican business interests, this is no damn way to run a government, a democracy, a Republic, or whatever the hell we have now regressed to. You should not have to be a Republican to get hot under the collar over this manner of doing business. A Ram Truck would be one thing but this is just a Ram Job.
This stuff is just onerous and there is no way for ANYONE to say or project all of the over-under-sideways-down ways that it will negatively impact our lives for God only knows how long. This goes beyond democrat-Republican. I will have to maintain that NOTHING is better than something BAD. There will come a day when we will be very sorry, but it will be too damn late to reverse the damage. This is no way to be picking winners and losers.
Posted by: Django - N Exile In/Around the 30th Parallel | November 3, 2009 11:02 PM
Stop the presses!!!!
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http://www.tnr.com/sites/default/files/House%20Bill.pdf
Change in 2009,
Here's the link to the bill. Shimkis has a good head start on you, but if you're as smart as you think you are, you should be able to catch up and pass him by and have a valid opinion regarding the content shortly.
Now, good luck finding the Republican sponsored bill.
Posted by: kg123 | November 3, 2009 3:11 PM
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Good Luck finding the Republican sponsoerd bill?? kg123 please! One needs only to look at the House and Senate Committee votes that refused to allow any Republican bills on the floor - period!
Now, I know its way too easy to make those statements about Republican input into such a massive and costly piece of legislation when you know that the Republicans were NEVER included in back room meetings to create the language. Republicans were NEVER allowed to even present their own legislation for a vote on the Senate or House floor.
No, the Republicans have been cast out of the process by keeping their ideas held hostage in "Committee", never to see the light of day.
Say they (Repubicans) are the party of "No" if you will but the truth of the matter is that the party of "Yes We Can" has depleted their credibility among the voters. You can't continue to acuse people of being obstructionists and lacking any meaningful contributions to today's problems when you lock them out of the process.
Posted by: springfield | November 4, 2009 1:37 PM