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Simplify legislation

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 16, 2009

Abraham Lincoln once said that any man (non-lawyer) who represented himself in court had a fool for an attorney. John Conyers, a senior U.S. House member from Michigan, recently stated that there was basically no reason to even try to read or understand a recent version of health care reform because it would take three congressional lawyers to interpret it.

Consider that every contract, from cell phone service to real estate, is written in such ridiculously complicated, wordy and finely-printed paragraphs that most people require the services of a lawyer to understand. Isn't it ironic that something as truly necessary as health care reform has to be written like the terms and conditions of a vacation time-share agreement?

It might take a high IQ and a specialized degree to understand what a document means, but it doesn't take a genius to understand why things are written in a complicated and confusing manner. Why can't this government legislate in simple English?

The military doesn't consult lawyers to write field maintenance manuals for a soldier's M-16 rifle, which his life depends on, so why does something as monumental as health care or any other legislation have to be different? If the incredible amount of conjecture, name-calling and general distrust that has been brought about by the health care reform debate hasn't underscored how willfully out of touch our legislators are with their constituents, what will?

It is time we demand that our representatives write bills that most Americans can understand with contents specifically related to the proposed bill's title and nothing else.

S. HEMINGWAY

Tampa

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