I did not realize until I read this piece that I am a lunatic. Me a 46 year old lawyer. Who pays six figures in taxes and is a Conservative. I did not realize that opposing a takeover of 1/6th of our economy by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid makes me a lunatic. I did not know that concerns over the failed stimulus, the false claims of jobs saved or created makes me a lunatic. I was unaware that concerns over the utter lack of transparency in the passing of the House bill renders me a lunatic.

Thanks Slate.

that's not what makes you a lunatic. babbling profound stupidity in pure delusional hypocrisy as you spin yourself stupid daily is what makes you a lunatic, and I dare say, a moron

Pelosi lied about the 72 hour provision - straight up. Nothing "delusional" about that.

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On September 24, Speaker Nancy Pelosi told THE WEEKLY STANDARD that she was "absolutely" committed to putting the text of the final House bill online for 72 hours before the House votes:

TWS: Madam Speaker, do you support the measure to put the final House bill online for 72 hours before it's voted on at the very end?

PELOSI: Absolutely. Without question.

But tonight, when asked if Speaker Pelosi will leave the bill online for 72 hours after we see what's in the rule, Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly replied in an email: "No; [the] pledge was to have manager’s amendment online for 72 hours, and we will do that."

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Why are they so afraid to give people time to read the bill? (as if 72 hours is even enough time to read a 1950 page clusterf* of legislation). Why are they afraid of transparency.

Opposing policies for good reasons doesn't make one a lunatic. Parroting talking points about a "takeover of 1/6th of our economy" does.

Takeover? Hardly. It's not nationalized health care like in Britain. It's not even single payer like in Canada. And it's not even close to what's done in most European countries, where most people get to choose their own doctors. "Takeover" is rhetoric, not reality.

And even if it were a "takeover," one would have to explain why that was such a terrible idea. Even if the House bill became law, the degree of government involvement would still be far less than those of our peer nations--and they get essentially the same health results we do while we spend 50% more. So even if it were a "takeover"--which it isn't--one would still have to answer the question as to whether the resulting system would be better or worse than the one we have.

So it's not the opposition that makes one a lunatic. It's the reliance on catch phrases that have little relationship to reality.

You mean like here:

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Hogie:

I did not realize until I read this piece that I am a lunatic. Me a 46 year old lawyer. Who pays six figures in taxes and is a Conservative. I did not realize that opposing a takeover of 1/6th of our economy by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid makes me a lunatic. I did not know that concerns over the failed stimulus, the false claims of jobs saved or created makes me a lunatic. I was unaware that concerns over the utter lack of transparency in the passing of the House bill renders me a lunatic. Thanks Slate.

How does someone who pays hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes every year have time to read and post in Slate? Why aren't you more busy hauling in your millions? With that income, why are you so afraid some poor person will get healthcare? Our sympathies are supposed to be with you??? What a joke.

Another Joe the Plumber internet millionaire. GMAFB

Nope. You teabaggers started out loony.

I did not realize that opposing a takeover of 1/6th of our economy by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid makes me a lunatic

It does. But not because opposing that would make you lunatic. What makes you lunatic is the assertion that Pelosi and Reid are "taking over 1/6th of our economy".

THAT is a disconnect from reality that makes you lunatic.

As for your income, age and what you pay in taxes simply demonstrates the power of White Male Affirmative Action.

I did not know that concerns over the failed stimulus, the false claims of jobs saved or created makes me a lunatic.

Similarl applies here. There is ZERO evidence the stimulus has "failed". And while the precise number of jobs saved is disputed and not 100% documented, the broad agreement among economists is that the GWB INITIATED Stimulus has been working.

I was unaware that concerns over the utter lack of transparency in the passing of the House bill renders me a lunatic

And the same applies here. Though this is more of a case of ignorance combined with a double standard:

• This was far more transparant a process thatn what went into PATRIOT ACT II
• And the process wasn't completely opaque. Staffers and Congress Critters has access to the bill in all of its forms coming up to it.

So yes, in broad sweeps - the post you have just made pretty much makes you a lunatic. And I sure as hell would want someone else as my atty. Someone who actually had to work their way up in the profession rather than benefitting from White Male Affirmative Action

Now, degs, you could be right about Hogie, but to be fair to the OP, he could very well be a minority, unless you know him to be a caucasian male from other posts. However, your points get lost since you didn't mention that you know that from other posts and race was not brought up in his top post. There are conservative rich minorities out there.

You folks' stunning lack of credibility in all of this is what keeps you nailed to the cross. Where were the teabagger scum when Bush was ass raping the constitution, doubling the national debt and spying on innocent Americans? Where was your outrage then, Hogie? Why wasn't there an outcry for all of the "freedoms" that the Bush administration was taking away? Where was the outcry back then when Bush/Cheney were "dithering" in Afghanistan FOR 8 YEARS?

I could go on and on and on about this shit. But the bottom line all has to do with conservatives discovering their inner patriot on 01/20/09 and then expecting the majority of us out here to take their silly asses seriously.

Uh, not only no. But FUCK no!

I see that no one wants to address that fact that Pelosi lied about the 72 hour window. Also, is 72 hours even enough to have a review of a 1950 page bill in any meaningful way?

is 72 hours even enough to have a review of a 1950 page bill in any meaningful way?

Is the assertion here that no one really knows what's in the bill unless you read the whole thing?

Folks in Congress know what's in the bill. Their staffers know. Would it really be a good use of their time to read every line? Much of it is technical legalese.

Really, I think this "read the bill!" meme is pretty much a canard. I wonder how many in Congress read the Medicare prescription drug benefit bill before it was passed--or how much it would have helped.

Yes, Pelosi should either have stuck with the 72 hour posting or just gotten rid of it. But I don't pretend that reading the whole thing would make much of a difference.

CMD:

that's not what makes you a lunatic. babbling profound stupidity in pure delusional hypocrisy as you spin yourself stupid daily is what makes you a lunatic, and I dare say, a moron

My oh my look who is calling the kettle black...is that racist?

Sorry, but people who yell "read the bill!" have NO understanding of how legislation is written or works on the Hill. I work on the Hill. And reading the bill, or any bill for that matter, is a difficult endeavor. It is written by lawyers using legal language. They are NOT written in an easy-to-read style. Because, they are LEGAL documents. Now, sometimes, committees or members' staff will write a kind of supplemental "cliff notes" version of bills for public consumption. But that takes a lot of time that staff don't often have. I suggest for everyone who thinks reading this bill is easy, go to Thomas dot gov and search for this bill and try to read it yourself. You'll see that basically it is legal gobbley-gook. They have to be written this way. For Congressmen that are lawyers, they might understand some of it. But for those that are not, it is challenging. So lets have a little perspective here people. Plus, Congressmen are busy people. How many people here have time to read War and Peace once a week, almost every week? Not many I suspect. And yes, one might say we "pay" them to read bills. But I say - yeah right. We pay them to bring home the bacon to our districts. We don't pay them to sit around and read things all the time. If everyone read every word of every bill before the House or Senate Floor, nothing would get done. EVER. And then people would complain about that. So damned if you do, damned if you don't.