Massive Legislation

In the past several years we have witnessed massive legislative bills passed by Congress.  Some are more than 2000 printed pages.  What are the consequences?  What does this mean?

We begin with the facts.

1.  It is most possible that the subject and content of the bill cannot be expressed in fewer pages. If that's what it takes, then that's what it takes.
2. It is probable that most congressmen cannot read the bill for content.  Could you read such a bill?  Two thousand pages?  Every bit of it is technical detail.  This means each page must be read slowly and evaluated.  Even at one page per hour, ridiculously fast, the reading would take one work-year.  Which congressman has this kind of time?  Moreover, different people reading the same page will possibly score different evaluations.
3. What congressman commands this level of knowledge on a dedicated subject?
4. The most difficult part of the bill is with understanding how the disparate parts co-mingle, and what are the implications of all this. 
5. The true contents of such legislation cannot be understood by anyone.  Period.

We come to the points. 

1. No one person can do it.  The bill must be separated into parts and teams of people read each of the parts. And this implies #4 above becomes problematic - if not impossible. 
2. No one congressman or group of same could possible put this together.  The writing of such a bill takes even more time, probably five-ten man years if any coordination is intended.
3. This means that congressmen, on both sides, have deferred to aids, to leaders or outside groups to write and evaluate the legislation, write up talking points, and recommend a decision.  There can be little oversight by leaders that simply cannot comprehend what has been written and what it implies.
4. This means that massive legislative acts are passed with only the recommended OK or not OK of third party surrogates, often not even a part of government.  Even party leaders cannot know ramifications, much less the contents.
5. This means that congressmen have passed pieces of possibly expensive and no doubt significant legislation with utterly no understanding of what they have passed. 
6. The true contents of such legislation cannot be understood by anyone.  Only newly formed agencies can make these interpretations and write the massive implementation regulations based upon the new laws.
7. News agencies select various aspects of the new or proposed law and offer up their critiques, whether positive or negative. All of them are based on partial information - and most likely a political perspective.

Conclusion.  There is little responsibility, realism, common sense, oversight, and ability in our Congress.  How can they do such things?  Do we now have a surrogate Congress creating and controlling our legislation, while the real Congress does sound bites and TV interviews?

One example: On the Affordable Care Act, it is significant to point out that when then Speaker Nancy Pelosi made her now famous remark she was not being disingenuous, dishonest, or deceitful. She actually did not know what was in the bill, and she telegraphed that no one else did either.

Imagine this analogy.  NASA wants to build a spaceship to travel to Mars.  Groups (or individuals) are created to design the components:  a. propulsion systems, b. ship design and structure, c. life support systems, d. extra and intra-ship communication, e. mission goals and control, f. Mars lander, and g. personnel selection and training.  Their reports and recommendations are bound into a very large book.  No one reads the whole thing as a single instrument.  NASA requests and approves proposals on all these parts.  The successful trip is eagerly anticipated.