Baucus on Reading Bill: We Hire Experts for That

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Voices of Montana Newsletter

jnsesq

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 9:34 AM

I wish the AP would formally change its name to OP whereupon it could be appreciated for what it is: The Obamassociated Press. Oops! There I go, gettin’ all racist again…

Dave

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 9:38 AM

So what exactly are we paying him to do?

Republic

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 9:40 AM

If you read the fine print in the bill, everyone is assigned an expert to help them utilize the health care. Yeah, I know, it’s all fine print.

Craig Jay

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 9:44 AM

Montana voters need to be experts and vote this clown out of office.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 9:52 AM

Baucus is right. The government has grown so big it is unmanageable, and the bills are so complex and loaded with pork and entitlements that they are impossible for anyone to read and still fulfill his other responsibilities. So I don’t fault him on that.

What I do fault him on is authoring the healthcare bill monstrosity. As chairman of the finance committee, of all things, he should have known what a death blow the bill will be to the healthcare industry and the economy. I hold him fully accountable for the precepts that went into this damnable bill. And even the Dems are now running away from their earlier assertions that this bill would save the nation money through increased efficiencies.

We gave the Dems the reins, and they have show complete incompetence, let alone the arrogance of power thwarting the overwhelming will of the American people.

I don’t hold the Pubsl faultless either, by any means, but there are many there, and increasingly so, who “get it”, who are alarmed by the nation’s radical tack to unworkable, destructive socialism under obama and the dems.

J

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 9:56 AM

I watched some of the coverage on CSPAN of the Healthcare coverage on the floor of the Senate and on several occasions it appeared that the Senator was not in total control of his thoughts. I am sure that I am not the only person watching who noticed this behavior.

thegratefuldad

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 10:14 AM

They more than likely haven’t even read THE CONSTITUTION!!!!

Thos Weatherby

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 10:17 AM

Maybe they should save the money and not hire experts. If the bill is too technical, maybe they should practice on writing less complicated ones. This is a cop out. What’s next, hiring an expert to vote for them?

phillysmart

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 10:22 AM

Well if you need to hire experts on tax payers money to do your job than maybe we should elect those experts and save us all money and time

Eugene

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 10:23 AM

Wait…if they think it is a waste of time to read and write legislation…then wtf do these people do?

Why are we as a society putting our faith in brainless empty suits?

Bob

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 10:23 AM

Arrrgh, g**damned the politicians who won’t read any major legislative bill before voting on it!! There ought to be a law requiring senators and representatives to read out loud any major legislative bill before voting.

Obamacare must be repealed because it was passed in DECEIT.

Kevin

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 10:29 AM

These people were voted in by US voters. That tells you everything you need to know about the US population….

Bill

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 10:30 AM

Ladies and gentlemen we have only ourselves to blame for this kind of feckless, inept representation. We go about our daily lives indulging in escapism with all sorts of distractions leaving the important issues up to the experts that we send to Washington. Now we learn that the experts that we’ve elected have deferred to other experts. We mistakenly believed that officials in government operate on the same assumptions and work standards as the rest of us in the private sector. But that really is not the case. Anyone who exists in an environment where there is no accountability, as in the government, for any length of time will ultimately develop what I call a reordered sense of reality.

The best illustration of this is the example of Max Baccus unreluctantly admitting that he had not read the healthcare bill. Anyone in the private sector who had responsibilty for implementing such a vast and sweeping initiative would certainly understand the minimal expection of knowing what it is that they are proposing and would never dream of making a public admittance that they did not. Baccus was clueless of the perception this created. John Conyers, congressman from Michigan has the same reality. He chided constituents who implored him to read the bill. His public retort was ” what’s the point of reading the bill when it takes two days to read it and you need two lawyers to interpret it”. He thought this was a perfectly plausible explanation for not reading it.

We need to be more vigilant of the performance and behavior of our elected officials. If we don’t, we can only blame ourselves.

Al

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 10:44 AM

We pay them to write and read the bills not to party and ask for money. They should all be voted out in November for not taking their duties seriously.
They should only meet for two weeks and go home (which is what they did for the first 100 years).

We need a fresh start. We need to go back to having representation by the States as it was in the original Constitution. There should be two Houses fighting each other. They don’t work at all anyway. Send them packing.

LibsAreCommies

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 10:54 AM

Evict these Commies in November. And always remember what they have done to America. Never again grant Liberals power to abuse…

Thomas

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 11:00 AM

Senator Max Baucus of Montana in his own words: “I don’t think you want me to waste my time to read every page of the health care bill. You know why? It’s statutory language,We hire experts.”
Senator, we don’t want you to waste you precious time. We want you to do the job for which you were elected. That is to represent the citizens of your state. How can you represent them if you don’t know what is in the bills for which you vote? Can you read? Can you comprehend? Why waste tax payer money hiring “experts” (your term, not mine) to do you job? If that is the case and factual then you need to resign and allow the experts to continue doing the job. You are doing nothing less than scamming the voters of your state.
You sir and a sorry excuse for a Senator and need to resign immediately. You represent the citizens of Montana, not the President and his socialistic agends. You take money, your salary, under false pretenses and have admitted such. I think it’s time to call the ethics committee and file charges against you four your own admission.

duckandcover

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 11:04 AM

What’s the big deal about not reading the Obamacare bill?

Neither Geitner nor Rangel read the tax code either. But you have to obey it.

This is legislative malpractice per se.

VOTE AGAINST IT, AFTER YOU VOTED FOR IT, WHEN YOU GET A CHANGE TO READ IT!

hymieg

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 11:10 AM

Failure to do his job is grounds for termination, is it not? Why is he still in place instead of being rebuked/impeached/indicted?

TheChairman

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 11:11 AM

“It’s statutory language,” Baucus said. “We hire experts.”

He means the army of Zionist lawyers infesting Washington D.C. that drafted these totalitarian acts -years- in advance to destroy civil liberties. e.g. ‘Patriot Act’

Grady

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 11:13 AM

Perhaps we need to cut to chase, elect the expert and leave the strap hanging politicians on the platform.

Grady

rbblum

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 11:28 AM

Just an indication of the end of our republic as we thought it was . . . . .
‘The people’ need to be ready for the day of reckoning (when the fiscal and financial ruin of the US is acknowledged) to stand up and begin the process of refounding the United States of America based upon the US Constitution (as envisioned by our founding forefathers) and adhere to sound fiscal and monetary principals in a free market.

Mountain Mike

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 11:32 AM

Here’s an idea- require all legislators at every level, local, county, state and national to sign an addendum to every bill stating that under penalty of perjury, they have read every word of the bill. Along with this, make them take a proctored multiple choice test on the bill. This will get bills down to one to two pages in length, guaranteed.

No name

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 11:37 AM

And guess who those ‘experts’ are who wrote the bill……policy and industry types who stand to gain politically and financially from the implementation of it! Follow the money. Our founding fathers did NOT have this in mind.

Ten

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 11:37 AM

Vote 100% anti-incumbent, people. It’s the only chance we have.

Mountain Mike

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 11:38 AM

Here’s an idea- require all legislators at every level, local, county, state and national to sign an addendum to every bill stating that under penalty of perjury, they have read every word of the bill. Along with this, make them take a proctored multiple choice test on the bill. This will get bills down to one to two pages in length, guaranteed.

No name

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 11:39 AM

And guess who those ‘experts’ are who wrote the bill……policy and industry types who stand to gain politically and financially from the implementation of it! Follow the money. Our founding fathers did NOT have this in mind.

CATHERINE

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 11:40 AM

OFFLMFAO – THIS IS THE BIGGEST REASON THAT DEMOCRATS CREATED THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION UNDER JIMMAH CARTER – THEY LOVE THEIR FOLLOWERS DUMBER THAN BOXES OF ROCKS……………

DEMOCRATS WILL FIGHT AND RACE TO VOTE AGAIN FOR FREAKS THAT DON’T BOTHER TO READ THE LAWS THAT THEY MAKE………..

IF ONE REPUBLICAN, NO MATTER HOW LOWLY EVER ADMITTED HE DIDN’T BOTHER READING THE LAWS THAT HE STUCK ON MY FAMILY…..

I WOULD NEVER VOTE FOR THEM AGAIN AND I WOULD TRASH THEM DAILY……….

NOPE, NOT THE DUH DUH DUH DEMOCRATS……………

OFFLMFAO…………..HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU HEARD ONE OF THE IDIOTS SAY ‘I WAS BORN A DEMOCRAT AND I WILL DIE A DEMOCRAT’……………..MANY MANY DO, NEVER WILL YOU HEAR A REPUBLICAN SAY THAT CRAP…………..ONLY IDIOTS SAY THAT…………

OILYBAMA IS WIPING THE DEMOCRAT PARTY OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH………….AND THAT IS CHANGE AMERICA CAN BELIEVE IN……..

Jeremy

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 11:41 AM

It’s time to do something about these idiots. VOTE THEM OUT!!!! And that means YOUR representative also, not just mine!!!

Max

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 11:42 AM

So the senator admits he didn’t read it and woulldn’t understand it if he did because it’s statutory language. Great.

So there could be anything in that bill. He has no idea. Thank you Democrats.

Mountain Mike

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 11:44 AM

Here’s an idea- require all legislators at every level, local, county, state and national to sign an addendum to every bill stating that under penalty of perjury, they have read every word of the bill. Along with this, make them take a proctored multiple choice test on the bill. This will get bills down to one to two pages in length, guaranteed.

Barry Bin Inhalin

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 11:50 AM

Can’t wait for Max to hit the campaign trail.

Todd Pollard

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 12:03 PM

I wouldn’t expect a negro president would be a very good reader…but the congress shouldnt have any excusr

Jaime

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 12:14 PM

What better explanation for the total collapse of our democratic system could we ask for. The senator who “wrote” the bill didn’t write it. A man charged with deliberating over legislation did not read it. Debate consists of flinging talking points across the aisle and into microphones. Constitution. What constitution?

Experts — congressweasel talk for lobbyists.

These d-bags have got to go or we’re going to be proles for the rest of our lives, and for generations to come.

Jaime

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 12:15 PM

What better explanation for the total collapse of our democratic system could we ask for. The senator who “wrote” the bill didn’t write it. A man charged with deliberating over legislation did not read it. Debate consists of flinging talking points across the aisle and into microphones. Constitution. What constitution?

Experts — congressweasel talk for lobbyists.

These d-bags have got to go or we’re going to be proles for the rest of our lives, and for generations to come.

jim

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 12:21 PM

How in the world are the thousands of bureaucrats and government workers,case workers etc supposed to know what is covered and what is not if it takes an expert to understand the law?
The answer is
You will get a different answer everytime you speak to a different employee of the government. Decisions will be painfully long and mostly incorrect for years and years. This is your medical life I am talking about here!
The same folks that work at the DMV will be the ones deciphering what regular attorneys cannot and telling you what in their opinion is the correct course of treatment for you and your families illnesses.

Please get out and vote

Mountain Mike

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 12:27 PM

Here’s an idea- require all legislators at every level, local, county, state and national to sign an addendum to every bill stating that under penalty of perjury, they have read every word of the bill. Along with this, make them take a proctored multiple choice test on the bill. This will get bills down to one to two pages in length, guaranteed.

rufus levin

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 12:28 PM

EXPERTS = LOBBYISTS AND CAMPAIGN DONORS.

WHAT A FOOL.

ANYONE THAT VOTES FOR HIM IS A FOOL.

SEBELIUS IS A PHONEY ALSO.

mrsharfer

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 12:41 PM

I have always said that government work is an extension of welfare. The obamination proves this is also true of the White House. Now, we discover it also holds for the House and Senate. Time to “hire” some real experts and replace the likes of Baucus. November can’t come soon enough!!

Eyeball

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 12:44 PM

We elect Congressman to read and write bills. If they hire someone to do their job for them, then they need to pay for it out of their own pocket.

lyle

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 12:57 PM

Time for Montana residents to hire an expert of their own. Perhaps someone who can read the bills and has the best interest of America and individual liberty at heart.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 1:30 PM

Baucus and Sebelius are BOTH “wastes of time” and need to be removed from office ASAP!……….

Rick

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 1:45 PM

The citizens of Montana must be extremely proud to have such a lazy, arrogant oaf purport to represent them.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 2:20 PM

They passed it for Our Founder.

They did it for Teddy! http://www.FATBOY.cc

Jim in Houston

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 2:55 PM

How could this moron have written the bill when he didn’t read it? I usually read what I write. I think most people do, except for the mental midgets we elect to run our government. The blame lays squarely with those who didn’t take the time or have the mental capacity to study the candidates and their positions on the issues affecting the American public. They blindly followed the nice words being read from a teleprompter without weighing their substance. The public deserves the government they voted for. Maybe next time someone will pay attention.

Aaron

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 3:00 PM

How does a legislator’s time becomes so “valuable” that they cannot waste it reading legislation?

Aaron

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 3:03 PM

How does a legislator’s time becomes so “valuable” that they cannot waste it reading legislation?

Jodi

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 3:09 PM

Ok all you voters out there, it”s simple, we need to ax Max.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 3:13 PM

We are too busy to read those long bills.

blacknblue2

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 3:41 PM

Clearly the people elected the wrong person for the job. I guess the “expert” is the person that should have been elected.

Washington is chock full of idiots.

roxanne

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 3:42 PM

That is the dumbest thing I ever heard. If you don’t read it, how do you know the “experts” put in what is needed. They could twist any words for any outcome. Any politician who has not read a bill they sign andunderstand the full content of it should be fined, jailed and fired.

blacknblue2

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 3:43 PM

Clearly the people elected the wrong person for the job. I guess the “expert” is the person that should have been elected.

Washington is chock full of idiots.

jhoger

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 3:58 PM

You knee jerkers need to re-read the statement. He is saying he didn’t read the LEGISLATIVE LANGUAGE. What Baucus helped with or “wrote” was a simpler form of non-legislative language. Same content, different form. Then it is rendered, think, encoded into lawyerspeak. Stuff you wouldn’t understand, but is necessary for practical legal reasons. He is not saying he doesn’t know what is in the bill. He is saying that he read the bill in an understandable form, not the final hard to follow form that legislation finally ends up in.

Cranios

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 4:00 PM

Don’t you ever forget, it was ONLY the Democrats who hired Baucus!!

the girl

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 4:13 PM

SCHMUCK – Why do we have to pay TWICE to get a job done? Fire these lame idiots!

the girl

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 4:14 PM

SCHMUCK – Why do we have to pay TWICE to get a job done? Fire these lame idiots!

f

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 5:01 PM

Your party FORCED us to accept this horrible transformation. Your party refused to listen to our objections. Now you horrible people don’t have the dignity to stand up and say I take responsibility for this fiasco scheme. You pass the buck. I don’t have access to these “experts”. You were elected. Americans are betrayed by YOU! For generations this INFAMY will not be forgotten.

Carney

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 5:01 PM

Look, I opposed ObamaCare, and I don’t think much of Baucus.

But this “did you read the bill?” hounding shows that people don’t know what bills are like. Most refer to or modify existing laws, so you get page after page of stuff like “Strike sections c-k of 104.18, and replace every mention of 10,000 with 45,000 in sections l-o” — and stuff like that, for hundreds and hundreds of pages, with no explanation. That’s what the nerds crank out when a Senator sits down and tells them, “write me a bill that gets rid of this stupid regulation that a constituent complained to me about, and also increases the cap in the amount of money paid out for this issue from 10K to 45K”.

Now, having said all that, when a huge bill like ObamaCare is being considered, there needs to be enough time for the nerds to turn it back into English so all the elected officials know exactly what is going on before they vote on it. If there hasn’t been time to produce such a summary, or if the elected pol hasn’t read it, THEN yes a lot of criticism is warranted.

lyle

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 5:04 PM

Cranios, I don’t get it. Don’t independents and Republicans vote in Montana?

Eric

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 5:27 PM

Who voted for the experts?

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 5:33 PM

But theres nothing in the CONSTITUTION about hiring them!

2010 CENSUS IS ILLEGAL http://second-amendment.tripod.com

WesleyAlexander

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 5:41 PM

The bill was probably put together by the Apollo Alliance. How else could it be put together so quickly. With its 1000+ pages, the Dem’s and their Alinsky handlers wanted to overwhelm the system. It should be a crime for bills to be passed unread by the vast majority of Congress. Extensive hearings should have been held, but that would be asking too much of our representatives. Comes November, I hope the electorate sends Obama and the Dems a clear message.

All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.
Thomas Jefferson

Nik

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 5:45 PM

THAT IS YOUR SOLE PURPOSE YOU PRICK and yes I do want you to read every damn page of every damn bill! If they are to complicated and require a lawyer, make them more simplistic. If they are to long shorten the damn things! If you can’t do either then get the hell out of office and allow someone who is competent to move in. Unbelievable, I want to see charges of treason after these traitors are tossed out of office.

Randall

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 6:59 PM

Constitutional, our government(ALL) hasn’t been that for a long time now. Would be nice to try that again!

I

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 7:02 PM

This is where all the jobs are being created. Hire the the experts to write it, hire experts to read it, hire experts to tell him what’s in it. Bancus should know what’s in it he told the experts what to put in it!! Why should he care he’ll be on a special healthcare plan which “we the people” will pay when he leaves Washington. We the people should have a say on what kind of benefits any of the Senators, Congressman, or Representatiive should receive.

Justen

Friday, August 27, 2010 9:22 AM

“We hire experts!”

Hah, and American tax livestock thought they were hiring an expert when they put that prick in office in the first place! Ooops! If they’re not experts at writing laws, what the hell are they experts in? Besides lying of course?

jharry3

Friday, August 27, 2010 3:52 PM

The National Socialists have taken over.

zeig heil! er… hooray!

Allen

Saturday, August 28, 2010 5:27 AM

Very few congress critters read the bills they vote on. Congressman Rehberg has had to back track on quite a few issues like voting for those planes that Nancy wanted, because he voted for the bill but didn’t know what was in the bill.

Saturday, August 28, 2010 11:06 AM

This is a perfect example why we need to clear the swamp of the old time political operatives who are out of touch with the voting public. They think they know more than we do and act in their self-interest and not ours. Why would any fool vote for a bill that he does not know it’s contents?
Vote this November to clean the members of Congress and get some people who work for us and not themselves.

Monday, September 13, 2010 11:42 PM

Bancus should know what’s in it he told the experts what to put in it!! Why should he care he’ll be on a special healthcare plan which “we the people” will pay when he leaves Washington.

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