A Challenge to Jim Lehrer

Following the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, known as the stimulus bill and also following passage of the Affordable Care Act, reporters asked congressmen / congresswomen, “Did you know the bill included ….?” Often the response was “Really???” Both these bills were monstrous – 1000 to 2000 pages each!!! And, both were extensively revised the nights before the votes as individual votes were bargained. “Transparency in Government”, “No More Earmarks”, “We Want Clean Bills – Ones that We Can Vote Up or Down” ….. These are party independent mantras of recent political campaigns and congressional debates. Every candidate wants to gore the mythical bad guys who use the government for the benefit of single individuals, interest groups, corporations, municipalities, and states. “Vote for me I ride a white charger” they extol with fervor. There is no transparency in bills that have thousands of pages. Thousands of pages equal dense camouflage foliage. Late night revisions just before a vote equal a cloak of darkness. We need a limit on the length of a bill. Momentous bills like the Social Security Act were only a few pages long. No bill should be more than 50 pages long. No vote should occur until at least 72 hours have passed since the last amendment was adopted / last edit made and it was published on the internet for easy public viewing. Our forefathers designed a government structure that required 3 signatures on every bill – the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the President. The President can unilaterally enact these rules by simply making a public announcement that he/she will veto any bill that is more than 50 pages long or any bill that was not published in final form at least 72 hours before adoption in either the House or the Senate.
Does either candidate have the guts to commit to this stand on the campaign stump? Let’s dare Jim Lehrer to put this challenge out in the debate!