Alright, now slap yourself across the face and get over yourself. Let me start by saying that I am a Republican. Thus, I am averse to the government involving itself in the economy any more than absolutely necessary.

I will concede that there are intelligent, well-meaning people on the other side. However, before we can move on and have a productive discussion, we need to clear up a few things that we should all be able to agree on.

Let’s assume for a minute that a bill on freezing the federal budget and eliminating unnecessary programs were going through Congress. I would agree with the overall mission of the bill. However, if the bill were 1,000+ pages long and none of the Congress members had read the bill, I would be opposed to it.

This is an honest question for everyone, no matter your level of political interest or your opinions on such matters: Isn’t it a little weird (or horrifically wrong depending on how dramatic you care to be) that our congress people, who are paid with tax dollars to write and enact legislation, can get away with not reading the bill? Not only can they get away with it, John Conyers (D-Michigan) actually said on television that he shouldn’t be expected to read the bill because he isn’t a lawyer and he doesn’t have the time. Doesn’t have the time? What else does he have to do? I was under the impression that reading a monstrous piece of legislation designed to forever alter the relationship of citizen to government would be a priority for the people charged by the American people to write and enact such legislation. Oops.

My mistake, Mr. Conyers, I’m sorry. Here, I was expecting a legislator.... to legislate.... This was a problem with the stimulus bill and with everything else the Democrats have tried since the inauguration of their savior. In order to get enough support they have to include pork for every Democrat in Congress and most of those things are not in the national interest.

If a bill is too long for someone who is paid to read and write legislation, it’s too long, period. I don’t care what issue, who’s writing it or how necessary it may be.

Luckily, a lot of people are getting fed up with this trend and a lot of these legislators may pay for their negligence at the ballot box. However, considering the obvious shirking of duties, if I had it my way (which by the way, has no chance of happening), any senator or congress member who doesn’t read the bill should be removed from their seat.

In the mean time, thanks to diligent Americans, approval ratings for Obama’s plan have plummeted and the White House has stated that it’s “going to approach health-care reform in a different way.” This isn’t necessarily a victory for conservatives - the public option is still on the table - it’s a win for rationality.

As a country we’ve put the brakes on health-care and now it’s time to think. Give it a try, you’d be surprised what you may learn.