220 - 215 Landmark Legislation

Last night 11:15pm was landmark Legislation started?  The House voted on over 1990 pages of Health Care Reform Bill #3962.  It made me wonder - what is landmark legislation?  Naturally PoliSci majors have raised this question for their Masters Thesis for some time.  Renowned authors have written books about this and the range of significant legislation is from 16 laws to over 300 laws in over 200 years of deal making.

From the 45th to 107nd Congress (1877 to 2002) there have been 39,630 Public Statutes.  That is an average of 176 per year although the more recent years the average was 233.  

I watched some of the debate yesterday and it was timely after seeing Charlie Wilson's War on DVD the other night.  The quote -" Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them made" - Otto von Bismark is correct.  We herald our system as the best - but watching it in action is ugly.  The art of compromise is not easy and I doubt many would call this latest bill a true compromise.

So the majority rules - for now.  Luckily we have a Republic and phase two of sausage making begins and the Senate gets their "kick at the can" and then to committee and conference.  A bill before Xmas - don't hold your breath.