Since it was officially decreed the greatest half a year EVER, with all sorts of major legislation on its way. We've had stimuli packages, cap-and-trade, and are working on health care reform. For such important legislation, they are all amazingly enough packaged in bills that are so long that there is absolutely no chance whatsoever that anyone, including the bill's supposed authors, will have read the entire bill. How can we predict the consequences of legislation if at the time of voting none of the voters understand what amounts to an enormously expensive Stephen King novel? How do we solve this problem*?
I was thinking about this problem today and have a couple of common sense solutions.
First, let us dispense with the myth that the American form of government is supposed to be efficient. Checks and balances are not efficient, but they do limit damage. The US government was not set up to be efficient and pass laws quickly or in quantity. I work around brilliant people that are experts in their fields every single day. Easily 90% of what they do fails. Not because they aren't smart, but because things are rarely as simple as we think. What is the failure rate that we should expect from people who are not experts in anything other than getting elected and managing bureaucracy? Is enacting their plans as quickly and efficiently as possible a good idea.
What follows are my two simple solutions to prevent bills that are two long and complex to be understood from becoming law without due oversight.
1. Every bill must be hand written by the Congress person submitting it.
2. Every bill must read out loud on the House/Senate floor in its entirety before being voted upon.
These solutions are based on a very simple concept. Computer word processors make it very easy to exponentially expand the size of any text. The 1000 page bill problem did not exist in the "Good Old Days" because our forefathers were better people than us, but because the technology did not allow it.
Shit, I just sounded like a Luddite.
*For the sake or time and space I'm ignoring several further complexities that make bills even more difficult to comprehend like ear marks, amendments, and "to be completed later" sections.
