Posted on 08/02/2021 5:53:12 AM PDT by dynachrome
If the United States Senate votes this week on the bipartisan so-called “infrastructure” bill, it would be humanly impossible for any U.S. senator to read it before voting on it.
The text of a draft of the bill, obtained exclusively by Breitbart News from U.S. Senate sources not authorized to leak it, shows the plan is 2,701 pages long.
The text, which Breitbart News is publishing here so the public can see what Congress is doing in secret, shows the plan is far more sprawling and expansive than GOP senators, who backed advancing it without text even existing, led their constituents to believe.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Anyone who supports this bill should be tried and hung, or voted out of office.
Every politician who votes for any bill should sign, under oath, a testimony that he or she has read the complete bill.
Nancy will say they have to pass the bill in order to see what’s in it.
If there was ever a cry for the line-item veto...
Nothing in DC is bipartisan. Its the Democrats getting their way with Republicans feigning resistance. That’s how DC is.
Anyone who supports this bill should be tried and hung, or voted out of office.
************
Republicans rarely get turned out of office for voting with Dems. The base keeps voting R...just because.
This bill is a grand and detailed illustration of what is wrong with the federal government.
For example, why does the fed need to take our tax dollars and give it to states for drunk driving grants?
There are thousands of other examples that can be drawn from this document.
People should just look at the table of contents and see what vast overreach in which the Fed involve themselves.
You can bet the bottom line is we get our asses taxed off.
Unfortunately with Joe, if you say "line-item", he'll think you're talking about those little targets in the urinals.
Actually, such comments will bring critique for attacking “biden’s child”... /s
Yep. One item in the Table of Contents is to study taxing us per mile and you can be sure it's not like that would replace some other form of taxation.
The tax per mile taxes should apply only to electric cars since they don't help pay for the roads via the gasoline tax.
The House and Senate should have to vote separately on each page. However, they would also need to expand all the references to other laws to their full text.
Obamacare was also, coincidentally...2,700 pages (that was just from one source, but...it makes the point). What I wrote below is instructive to those who haven't looked at these kinds of things close up. I actually looked at the bill way back when, because I wanted to see what the real purpose of the bill was and what exactly it affected.
NOTE: I did this to illustrate the two main methods of obfuscation used by Leftists: Making legislation unreadable by laypersons (citizens) and burying everything inside massive documents. For what it is worth, Tolstoy's War and Peace" is about 1,500 pages, and is widely considered unreadable by many people due to its length.
Anyway, using the AFFORDABLE CARE ACT as an example,I was trying to figure out what is going to happen with reimbursement for Radiology services performed by hospitals and in reading this section discovered how they planned to reduce both payment AND availability of imaging resources (such as CT, MR, etc.)
This is what the bill ACTUALLY looked like, in the single section I was looking for information in.
SEC. 1147. PAYMENT FOR IMAGING SERVICES.
10 (a) ADJUSTMENT IN PRACTICE EXPENSE TO RE
11 FLECT HIGHER PRESUMED UTILIZATION.—Section 1848
12 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395w) is amend
13 ed—
14 (1) in subsection (b)(4)—
15 (A) in subparagraph (B), by striking ‘‘sub
16 paragraph (A)’’ and inserting ‘‘this paragraph’’;
17 and
18 (B) by adding at the end the following new
19 subparagraph:
20 ‘‘(C) ADJUSTMENT IN PRACTICE EXPENSE
21 TO REFLECT HIGHER PRESUMED UTILIZA
22 TION.—In computing the number of practice
23 expense relative value units under subsection
24 (c)(2)(C)(ii) with respect to advanced diagnostic
25 imaging services (as defined in section VerDate Nov 24 2008 23:22 Jul 14, 2009 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00273 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3200.IH H3200 jlentini on DSKJ8SOYB1PROD with BILLS
274•HR 3200 IH
1 1834(e)(1)(B)), the Secretary shall adjust such
2 number of units so it reflects a 75 percent
3 (rather than 50 percent) presumed rate of utili
4 zation of imaging equipment.’’; and
5 (2) in subsection (c)(2)(B)(v)(II), by inserting
6 ‘‘AND OTHER PROVISIONS’’ after ‘‘OPD PAYMENT
7 CAP’’.
8 (b) ADJUSTMENT IN TECHNICAL COMPONENT ‘‘DIS
9 COUNT’’ ON SINGLE-SESSION IMAGING TO CONSECUTIVE
10 BODY PARTS.—Section 1848(b)(4) of such Act is further
11 amended by adding at the end the following new subpara
12 graph:
13 ‘‘(D) ADJUSTMENT IN TECHNICAL COMPO
14 NENT DISCOUNT ON SINGLE-SESSION IMAGING
15 INVOLVING CONSECUTIVE BODY PARTS.—The
16 Secretary shall increase the reduction in ex
17 penditures attributable to the multiple proce
18 dure payment reduction applicable to the tech
19 nical component for imaging under the final
20 rule published by the Secretary in the Federal
21 Register on November 21, 2005 (part 405 of
22 title 42, Code of Federal Regulations) from 25
23 percent to 50 percent.’’.
24 (c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—Except as otherwise pro 25 vided, this section, and the amendments made by this sec-VerDate Nov 24 2008 03:06 Jul 15, 2009 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00274 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3200.IH H3200 jlentini on DSKJ8SOYB1PROD with BILLS 275•HR 3200 IH
Normal people could never decipher this. And that is 100% intentional, especially when buried in 2,700 pages. The following two paragraphs below show what the gobbledygook above boils down to in normal english, and what it actually MEANS.
SEC. 1147. PAYMENT FOR IMAGING SERVICES. ADJUSTMENT IN PRACTICE EXPENSE TO REFLECT HIGHER PRESUMED UTILIZATION In computing the number of practice expense relative value units under subsection the Secretary shall adjust such number of units so it reflects a 75 percent (rather than 50 percent) presumed rate of utilization of imaging equipment.
I am no accomplished expert on this, but downloading a Powerpoint Presentation, and looking around at various critiques of the way practice expense is calculated by hospitals, INCREASING the presumed rate of utilization drives DOWN the amount of money you get paid. END RESULT: LESS MONEY FOR IMAGING, FEWER SERVICES OFFERED.
Section 1848 ADJUSTMENT IN TECHNICAL COMPONENT DISCOUNT ON SINGLE-SESSION IMAGING INVOLVING CONSECUTIVE BODY PARTS. The Secretary shall increase the reduction in expenditures attributable to the multiple procedure payment reduction applicable to the technical component for imaging from 25 percent to 50 percent.
(What this means is that from now on, if you do a CT of the Abdomen AND a CT of the pelvis without moving the patient, you now get paid 50% less rather than 25% less. This is huge, and just one example of how they are going to cut billions of dollars a year in costs. The scumbags will say with a straight face that they aren’t rationing, but if you don’t get paid for the service, you either don’t do the service, or you go broke) END RESULT: LESS MONEY FOR IMAGING, FEWER SERVICES OFFERED.
According to the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (at this link: http://www.aapsonline.org/ this is an organization that advocates for physicians, not like the AMA which is advocating for liberalism) these sections above up to a reduction of 4.3 billion dollars a year in money to be paid for imaging. If someone interprets that some different way, please let me know...but if you bring in 45 million more people and reduce the money you pay...gee whiz, what is the end result?
Now, I wasn’t born yesterday, and I know why they are doing this, but this is our healthcare we are talking about, and they have deliberately tried to bury as much of it in incomprehensible legalese as they can get it. It made me madder and madder as I tried to go through it.
THEY DON’T WANT ANYONE TO READ AND UNDERSTAND THIS.
And that is the point of this post today.
I used the above as an example. They don't WANT anyone to read and understand it. They want to obfuscate every piece of information into broken up bits and pieces of text buried in reams of other text, so that as long as what they decided in scummy politician infested back rooms has backing on paper in some way, shape, or form, then...it meets their goal.
And so it is with this budget legislation. There is so much Leftist crap intentionally hidden in it, that there is no way you will find it unless you are looking for it, and even then.
Thanks for that...They need to call every single person who had a hand in writing this gobbledygook to the floor to read every stinkin’ line and take questions and explain what it means BEFORE a vote is taken. I don’t care if it takes them until November 2022...
Right...and that is another reason-remember how little time they allowed the bill to be visible for analysis?
Another arrow in their quiver:
Obfuscate via gibberish.
Hide via length.
Limit observation.
P
Takes a lot of pages to gobble up $ONE TRILLION!
Lord help us :(
Every Republican voting for this KNOWS they are paving the way for the country killing reconciliation bill.
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