I’m sorry this Blog Posting is so long but it’s worth the time it will take for you to Read It, Get Confused By It, Get Mad Because Of It and Be Shocked By It.
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Below you will find a Blog Posting I published on August 19, 2009. I am hanging my hat on this Foolishness to prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that I know what I am talking about. Sadly it is also proof that no one (in particular the Congress of the United States) is Paying Me No Nevermind.
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Here is the August 19, 2009 Blog Posting...
In Defense of Our 9% Approval Rating Congress
Our Congress is
getting beat about the head and shoulders about a lot of things. The Smartfella
is stepping up to come to their defense about an issue in which they have
heretofore been made to look truly derelict…
Ø Their critics have been shouting that they Do Not Read The Bills They Sign Into Law.
Ø Should they read the bills? … Of course they should.
Ø Is it a big waste of time to read the
bills? … Of course it is.
Has the Smartfella
lost it? Absolutely not! Conclusive proof of my position is quoted below. As
you read down you will see an excerpt (parts of pages 17 and 18) of H. R. 3200.
This bill that has the subtitle… “To provide affordable, quality health care for
all Americans and reduce the growth in health care spending, and for other
purposes.”
The Smartfella is made especially nervous by that last line, “and
for other purposes”. That sounds pretty open ended to me.
My contention is that this excerpt is not comprehensible by any Member
of Congress who took the time to read the bill or, certainly, by us. If my
representatives in Congress would say to me, “Why should we read this bill there is no way to understand it”. I
would instantly see the logic of this argument and I would tell them to go to
Happy Hour.
Here is the exact wording from the bill. The other pages are
more of the same. Can you figure it out?
(page 17)
20 (B) EXCEPTION
FOR LIMITED BENEFITS
21
PLANS.—Subparagraph (A) shall not apply to
22 an
employment-based health plan in which the
23 coverage
consists only of one or more of the fol-
24 lowing:
(page 18)
1 (i) Any coverage
described in section
2
3001(a)(1)(B)(ii)(IV) of division B of the
3 American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act
4 of 2009 (Public
Law 111–5).
5 (ii) Excepted
benefits (as defined in
6 section 733(c)
of the Employee Retirement
7 Income Security
Act of 1974), including
8 coverage under a
specified disease or ill-
9 ness policy
described in paragraph (3)(A)
10 of such
section.
11 (iii) Such
other limited benefits as the
12 Commissioner
may specify.
Those last lines
above again make the Smartfella especially nervous ... “(iii) Such other
limited benefits as the Commissioner may specify.”
That sounds pretty
open ended to me.
Or as Yul Brenner
said in The King and I, "Etcetera, Etcetera, Etcetera".
Or as Mel Brooks
said in The History of the World Part One,
"It's good to be the king".
Would I kid u?
Smartfella
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Now that you know how smart I am I will show you the Paying Me No Nevermind Part of this Blog Posting...
Unless you have been hiding under a rock with a blindfold on and ear plugs in you know that our 9% Approval Rated Congress just passed a New Coronavirus / Wuhan Virus / Chinese Flu / Novel Coronavirus / COVID-19 / CCP (Chinese Communist Party) Virus / SARS-CoV-2 Virus/Flu/Pandemic Stimulus Bill.
Halleluiah! Congress has just fixed everything...Or have they?
An indication that they have not fixed everything is the fact that members of Congress are now talking about another Stimulus Bill in January. I guess this is where they will fix everything they did not fix in this Stimulus Bill...Or will they?
Ø This bill is 5,593 pages long.
Ø Members of Congress had 5 hours to read it after it was released to them. That’s about 6 weeks short of the time it actually would take to read it. Fuhgeddaboudit!
Ø Amendments were not allowed. Fuhgeddaboudit!
Ø Just like I demonstrated in my August 19, 2009 posting above, this new bill also is too complicated to understand. Fuhgeddaboudit!
Is it possible that you are thinking that Congress read my August 19, 2009 Blog Posting and made this one understandable? If so, this is proof that you are not too smart. To prove how smart you are not, below is an excerpt from this new Stimulus Bill...
In the interest of being completely random, I went to my wife and asked her to pick a page between 1 and 5,593. I fully expected she was going to pick 4,489 but she picked page 57, so I reproduced page 57 below. If you think you can understand it...
Fuhgeddaboudit!
Page 57
1 Act (42 U.S.C. 1758(h)(4)) is amended in the first sen
2 tence by striking ‘‘For fiscal year 2020’’ and inserting
3 ‘‘For fiscal year 2021’’.
4 SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION PROGRAM FOR
5 WOMEN, INFANTS, AND CHILDREN (WIC)
6 For necessary expenses to carry out the special sup
7 plemental nutrition program as authorized by section 17
8 of the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1786),
9 $6,000,000,000, to remain available through September
10 30, 2022: Provided, That notwithstanding section
11 17(h)(10) of the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C.
12 1786(h)(10)), not less than $90,000,000 shall be used for
13 breastfeeding peer counselors and other related activities,
14 and $14,000,000 shall be used for infrastructure: Pro
15 vided further, That none of the funds provided in this ac
16 count shall be available for the purchase of infant formula
17 except in accordance with the cost containment and com
18 petitive bidding requirements specified in section 17 of
19 such Act: Provided further, That none of the funds pro
20 vided shall be available for activities that are not fully re
21 imbursed by other Federal Government departments or
22 agencies unless authorized by section 17 of such Act: Pro
23 vided further, That upon termination of a federally man
24 dated vendor moratorium and subject to terms and condi
25 tions established by the Secretary, the Secretary may
December 21, 2020 (12:59 p.m.)
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Breaking New Alert!
One of my many sources in Washington DC just texted to tell me why it has taken so many months to cobble together this bill. In the interest of transparency, Congress was waiting until they were assured that the bill was Clear and Concise...Or is it?
Would I kid u?
Smartfella
