Hmmm...

I found the actual bill online, and it is a whopping 2,074 pages of crap... absolute crap... that is designed for one purpose only, to give the illusion that the 111th Congress is actually addressing an issue that is important to the Democratic agenda as defined in 2008.

As Ryan pointed out, the benefits won't go into effect until 2014, but we are expected to pay for them starting next year (2010) and all the add-on stuff included in the bill to make it more palatable for moderates and swing votes will continue to suck treasure and resources from an already heavily taxed economy UNTIL such time as the benefits kick in.

This is shaping up to be the most expensive "still-born" legislation in US history. I say this because I simply do not believe that the Dems can continue on the road they are following now and hope with any reasonable degree of certainty to hold their majority in Congress more than 4 more years. That being the case, the FIRST thing a Republican-led Congress will do is repeal the entire thing, meaning that the whole focus and effort of the 111th Congress will be seen by history as a complete waste of time and tax-payer money.

I'm not saying this isn't something to be worried about... the trend is being reinforced and that is a bad precedent. We need this nation to remember that the freedoms of the individual are what guaranty the success of the society, and not the other way around. This Congress and this President are trying to prove a negative, and they will, by definition, fail at the effort. The question is how much will the "butcher's bill" be at the end of the day?

Why is it so impossible for the DNC to see that our government was instituted to "promote, preserve and protect" the general welfare of our society... not to provide for it. No greater fallacy can be perpetuated than to continue to imagine that "government" knows best what the "people" need in regards to general welfare. When will the "conservative" side of American politics find the voice that will state this as many times as is needed to get it to sink into the thick-heads of our fellow voters?