At one time, Barack Obama was a big advocate of reading bills before talking about them, one way or the other.  In 2004, Obama debated a fellow state Senator over, coincidentally, another health-care bill in Illinois.  With disdain dripping from his voice, Obama scolded his opponent for not having read the bill before debating it (via Michael Goldfarb at the Weekly Standard):

And I have to say by the way, just to pick up on something that was raised earlier, that this is a different bill number than the original bill, it has gone through a complete restructuring from the original bill, but that initial concern that Senator Ryder said, that original cloud continued over it, because industry, and industry lobbyists, insurance lobbyists here in Springfield had been engaging in such fear-mongering among its agents, suggesting that this was a single-payer bill that in fact a lot of concerns were raised that had nothing to do with the bill that was before the body today. And what I was, what I would strongly suggest is people take the time to look at the three-page bill that is before them as opposed to some of the mischaracterizations (of) this legislation that have been raised by others.

So does Obama feel that anyone who hasn’t actually read a bill should remain uninvolved in it? Apparently not, as John McCormack discovered at the beginning of Obama’s vacation:

TWS: At some point in the legislative process, will the president read the entire health-care bill?

GIBBS: I assume the president will study the details of the proposal and will be–he’s a highly informed individual.

TWS: But he won’t take the time to read it front to back at some point when this thing is firmed up?

GIBBS: I don’t know what his vacation plans are currently.

Isn’t this the bill that Obama demanded that Congress complete in just a few days? What happened to reading the bill? Did reading stop being fun-damental in the Obama administration?

Yid with Lid has more.

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