Pick A Bill, Any Bill

If your first thought was Mr. Clinton you earned strike one. Strike two if you chose Bill Cosby, and you’re out if Bill Murray was selected. Well, what does that leave on the table? Think you got it now? OK, let’s talk about the Bills that matter.

The ingredients required to produce these bills are tons of paper, gallons of ink, intricate detail, design and a high level of secrecy. While one person may be the primary architect of a bill, numerous others are involved at various stages of its production. Diverse locations of manufacture are necessary so as to not compromise the components essential to the integrity of genuine notes. Each bill is given a defined value prior to it being disseminated throughout the public and once disbursed the effect of the bills begin to impact the population.

The distributed bills can have a negative or positive effect on an individual or business dependent on which entity you are. It would seem though, that a bill common to both bodies, would produce the same benefit or harm to both, irrespective of their defined difference. To determine why this dichotomy exists, we must examine closely the finished product. For our examination we will look at the (insert name here) ACT, of (pick a year).

With your favorite bill in front of you, observe the physical weight of it and how well put together it is. The cover page, index and neatly spaced lines and paragraphs. The title alone probably takes your breath away as it exudes the benevolence of its intent. With the official seals and hallmark attached, the sheer gravitas of authority knocks one off his feet. Your only query, how did I live prior to its arrival?

Even a cursory analysis of the bill will cause the onset of something close to that of a migraine headache as the table of contents requires a legal scholar to unravel the references to section ‘x’ and the cross-references to sub-sections and related paragraphs which may apply to all or some of the aforementioned sections. A brief actual excerpt from the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, as follows:

Subtitle J – Improvements to the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC).  Sec. 2801 MACPAC Assessment of policies affecting all Medicaid beneficiaries.  (a) In general. Section 1900 of the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. 1396 is amended; (1) in subsection (b) – (A) in paragraph (1);  

This is but an introduction and continues for pages throughout the document. By the time one reaches the end of an introduction or definition of terms, the question becomes, what did I just read? As you peruse the congressional act of your choice, you’ll see the same. Is it any wonder our lives are in disarray when we look to government to solve our problems? Even the simplest remedy offered to what may or may not be an issue is lost in the convoluted language of a bill written and passed by an assembly of lawyers and politicians.

The informed citizen patriot is obliged to educate the younger and uninformed citizen. Our duty is to detangle the knotted methods which congressional members employ to determine our fate. Their veil of secrecy must be pulled back and the design of confused legislating put to an end. The return to constitutionally specified limits on government is in order. Without it, the cost of liberty is too great.

We elect representatives to protect freedoms guaranteed us as citizens of The United States. The laws of the land have become the burden of “we the people”, and slowed the march of freedom to a crawl. It’s been said that certain things get better with age, so I’ll take an old Bill of Rights, please.