Hecate:
I am a local elected official responding to your last comment excusing rank and file legislators who don't read long complex and complicated legislation being pushed through by the "leadership" in the closing hours of a long session because they (the rank and file legislator)don't have the time or the technical expertise to interpert all the information distributed via fact sheets and briefings.
That excuse sounds like the one the Democrats in Washington are using to whine about their stupid vote for the war that was based on bad information from a President they neither trusted or respected at the time. I think the Vice President has a point calling this kind of behavior "shameless, reprehensible, dishonest and corrupt".
I know I read every single local ordinance before I have to vote on it, and carry out some independent research to boot. If I'm suspicious of bad information, I move to postpone the vote or if I lose the postponement, I abstain from the vote, and make a public statement accordingly. To behave otherwise is to take the first step on the road to perdition.
Hecate responds:
You are a practically perfect person, and the Road to Perdition is pretty crowded anyway.
Sunday, November 27, 2005
Sunday, November 20, 2005
It was a long and complicated bill but at least I didn't have time to read it........
Hecate:
Last week our legislature passed a "first in the nation" comprehensive health reform legislation that really really screws our little agency that serves low income uninsured people. We did everything you told us to do..........we developed short easy to understand fact sheets and background papers that we used to brief our legislative delegation, the staffs of both Ways and Means committee , the Speaker and the Senate President. We got the commitment of two key legislators who promised to protect our interests. We walked our so called champions, and their staffs through about two inches of detailed background and made our policy analysts available to them at a moments notice. When the leadership tried to rush a 160 page bill through in less than 24 hours, our legislative sponsors were at least able to file a couple of amendments (that we wrote), but they weren't even brought up for debate!! It was all over so fast after months and months of lobbying. And the kicker was when one member of our legislative delegation made a joke about it --"It was a long and complicated bill, but at least I didn't have time to read it." I think that's just reprehensible!!!
Hecate says:
Well s/he was problably a little tired and cranky from trying to figure out the bill in the first place, never mind trying to figure out how the bill impacted your agency. Sounds like you did everything right but still failed to convince the Leadership that it was a top priority to protect your agency. Hard to swallow, I know.
Big complicated bills with lots of competing interests from a couple of hundred different stakeholders with millions of dollars and hundreds of jobs at stake, often are rushed through quickly after a couple of months of figuring out how to balance all the different interests. The goal is to make sure all the "big guys" don't get everything they want, but most of them get something. Lots of drafting mistakes are made in the margins because every section that benefits one stakeholder affects a dozen others, and vice versa. Trust me the leadership will be releasing several bills in the near future offering "technical corrections" to the big bill. Your champions still can make things right.
Last week our legislature passed a "first in the nation" comprehensive health reform legislation that really really screws our little agency that serves low income uninsured people. We did everything you told us to do..........we developed short easy to understand fact sheets and background papers that we used to brief our legislative delegation, the staffs of both Ways and Means committee , the Speaker and the Senate President. We got the commitment of two key legislators who promised to protect our interests. We walked our so called champions, and their staffs through about two inches of detailed background and made our policy analysts available to them at a moments notice. When the leadership tried to rush a 160 page bill through in less than 24 hours, our legislative sponsors were at least able to file a couple of amendments (that we wrote), but they weren't even brought up for debate!! It was all over so fast after months and months of lobbying. And the kicker was when one member of our legislative delegation made a joke about it --"It was a long and complicated bill, but at least I didn't have time to read it." I think that's just reprehensible!!!
Hecate says:
Well s/he was problably a little tired and cranky from trying to figure out the bill in the first place, never mind trying to figure out how the bill impacted your agency. Sounds like you did everything right but still failed to convince the Leadership that it was a top priority to protect your agency. Hard to swallow, I know.
Big complicated bills with lots of competing interests from a couple of hundred different stakeholders with millions of dollars and hundreds of jobs at stake, often are rushed through quickly after a couple of months of figuring out how to balance all the different interests. The goal is to make sure all the "big guys" don't get everything they want, but most of them get something. Lots of drafting mistakes are made in the margins because every section that benefits one stakeholder affects a dozen others, and vice versa. Trust me the leadership will be releasing several bills in the near future offering "technical corrections" to the big bill. Your champions still can make things right.
Sunday, November 06, 2005
It's About Time Don't You Think?
Dear Hecate,
What's going on with all of this talk about health care "reform"? It seems as though every state in the union is responding to their own health care "crisis" and deciding they have to "do something". Some states are cutting their health care programs and others are expanding their health care programs and still others are creating blue ribbon commissions to study their health care programs. What's the big deal? As far as I can tell, there is a "crisis" in public education, public transportation and public safty, never mind climate changes and global warming. Why health care? Why now?
Hecate says;
Aside from those of you who like to suffer or who have no loved ones to shield from suffering, most of you humans seem to value having good health care if you or your loved ones need it. That includes politicans in your country, who increasingly are becoming aware that getting good health care seems to be a increasingly difficult for more and more people in their districts. And sometimes even for themselves and their loved ones. So, they're trying to figure out what do about it. It's about time, don't you think?
What's going on with all of this talk about health care "reform"? It seems as though every state in the union is responding to their own health care "crisis" and deciding they have to "do something". Some states are cutting their health care programs and others are expanding their health care programs and still others are creating blue ribbon commissions to study their health care programs. What's the big deal? As far as I can tell, there is a "crisis" in public education, public transportation and public safty, never mind climate changes and global warming. Why health care? Why now?
Hecate says;
Aside from those of you who like to suffer or who have no loved ones to shield from suffering, most of you humans seem to value having good health care if you or your loved ones need it. That includes politicans in your country, who increasingly are becoming aware that getting good health care seems to be a increasingly difficult for more and more people in their districts. And sometimes even for themselves and their loved ones. So, they're trying to figure out what do about it. It's about time, don't you think?
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