Nothing says confidence in your legislation like proclaiming that people would run away screaming if they actually knew what it contained.

The fact that the socialized health-care bill is a monstrosity isn’t exactly news to those Americans not currently located up Barack Obama’s posterior, but it’s nice to see a temporary bout of total honesty from Hoyer.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Tuesday that the health-care reform bill now pending in Congress would garner very few votes if lawmakers actually had to read the entire bill before voting on it.

“If every member pledged to not vote for it if they hadn’t read it in its entirety, I think we would have very few votes,” Hoyer told CNSNews.com at his regular weekly news conference.

Hoyer was responding to a question from CNSNews.com on whether he supported a pledge that asks members of the Congress to read the entire bill before voting on it and also make the full text of the bill available to the public for 72 hours before a vote.

In fact, Hoyer found the idea of the pledge humorous, laughing as he responded to the question. “I’m laughing because a) I don’t know how long this bill is going to be, but it’s going to be a very long bill,” he said.

I’m sorry, but how much do we pay members of Congress? Oh yes, a base of $174,000 per year for rank-and-file back-benchers. In his role as House Majority leader the American people pay Steny Hoyer to the tune of $193,400 per year. And that doesn’t include book sales, eventual kickbacks received from securing pork, and the other benefits received by our suppsoed representatives. I’m thinking members of Congress can take the time to read proposed legislation at that salary level. It’s not like they’re volunteering their time.

Christ. It’s remarkable the sheer amount of pomposity contained within the halls of Congress. They feel absolutely no obligation to understand what they’re committing the American people to when they vote for entire overhauls of the American life. The general tax-paying public has once again been converted to the proverbial Forgotten Man mentioned by William Graham Sumner. Unbelievable.

Via Hot Air.