I’m Just a Bill from Capitol Hill

Remember when politics was easy and you could rely on the School House Rock explanation of how a bill becomes a law?  Well, political gamesmanship from the 110th Congress and the Bush Administration continue to make the simple more complicated. Not a phenomenon of the 21st Century, this sort of gamesmanship is not only a key component of our system; it was in play in the ratification of our own Constitution. The current games deal with the twelve appropriation bills that need to be signed into law to fund our government.  One receiving attention is House Rule (H.R.) 6599 : Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act, 2009. Like most appropriations bills, H.R. 6599 has pages and pages of language with key spending initiatives (think "Bridge to Nowhere").  Currently, one key policy within H.R. 6599 is an initiative to expand care to veterans that are currently not eligible for Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)...