In a recent CNN interview Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) labeled Obama Administration tactics in pushing the healthcare bill through the Senate as “seedy Chicago politics. Backroom deals that amount to bribes.”
Valerie Jarrett decided that she couldn’t take that. “It was definitely a cheap shot and completely unwarranted,” she told Politics Daily. She then went on to define what is warranted: NYT columnist Paul Krugman, “somebody who is held out as a world expert who actually has taken the time to understand what’s in the bills and who was critical early on (but) is now supportive. That says something to me about people who take the time to be well reasoned. And when you listen to people say on the extremes what’s in the bill and it’s apparent that they have not actually read the bill . . .”
Well, Ms. Jarrett, that leads to a few questions. First of all, which bill are you talking about? The House bill, or the Senate bill? From what I understand they are both over a thousand pages in length. And every day there seems to be a new draft. And the draft that might become law, the one that Congressional leadership will come up with trying to reconcile the House and Senate bills, doesn’t even exist yet. So which one should Americans spend the time that it takes to read a thousand pages reading?
Incidentally, not even our representatives in Congress, whose job it is to legislate, do not even have time to read the legislation (which leaves you wondering what else they are doing with their time). As Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) laughingly told us back in July, “… staff and review boards, they read [the bills] in their entirety. They go over it with members.”
Second, have you ever tried to read a thousand page Congressional bill? Those of us who have can tell you that it only makes sense to someone with encyclopedic knowledge of the U.S. code. So really, in the end we have to trust what “experts”, Paul Krugman, for example, tell us the bill says, and they, of course, have no ideological bias.
Finally, Ms. Jarret, as Senior Advisor to the President and Director of not one, but two, White House offices, not to mention dinner hostess and vacation buddy to the First Family, you are obviously extremely busy. Have you read the healthcare bill?
