According to a new survey by Zogby, more than 80 percent of Americans believe politicians intentionally create long and complex bills in order to conceal spending for their special interests, and to prevent constituents from understanding the bill before a vote is taken. A strong consensus was seen in just about every demographic.

Zogby asked this question: “Some contend that the reason federal legislation is often thousands of pages long is because provisions to benefit special interests can be more easily buried in long bills, and so citizens cannot decipher the legislative language quickly enough to be able to communicate support or opposition to their Senators or Members of Congress before a vote is taken. Do you strongly agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, or strongly disagree with this opinion?”

83.5 percent of respondents agreed at least “somewhat” with the complex-bill premise, and 61.2 percent of Americans agreed strongly. Only 14.4 percent disagreed, and just 5.8 percent strongly disagreed.

Even when broken down into ideological camps, liberals still largely agreed, although they registered the lowest levels of support at 66.1 percent. Moderates at least somewhat agreed 82.2 percent of the time, and conservatives registered at 96.9 percent of the time.

The results are not all that surprising when Americans are continuously deceived by Congress (and the mainstream media) concerning health care reform. The bill, coming in at over 2,000 pages, is not only filled with uncertainly about abortion funding and unconstitutional individual mandates, but also:

• $100 million for an unnamed health care facility at an unnamed university somewhere in the United States - the bill doesn’t say where - and no one will even step forward to claim it.
• Vermont and Massachusetts get temporary increases in the federal share of their Medicaid tabs. Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana got an extra $100 million for her state.
• $100 million for construction of a new hospital thanks to Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn. The legislation leaves it up to the Health and Human Services Department to decide where the money should be spent, but Dodd hopes to claim the money for his state’s university.
• Beneficiaries of Medicare Advantage plans in Florida will have their benefits grandfathered in thanks to a provision tailored by Sen. Bill Nelson, D-FL.
• One state gets to expand Medicaid at no cost to itself - while taxpayers in the other 49 states pick up the tab. The same Senator who cut that deal secured another one that benefits a single insurance company - just one insurance company - based in his state.
• Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) also made sure that certain insurance companies in his state are off the hook from a new $7 billion dollar tax.
• Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) was ‘persuaded’ to drop his concerns after Senator Reid offered his state a $10 billion grant for “community health centers” - money that could easily be funneled to facilities that perform abortions.
• Certain workers in ‘high-risk’ professions are protected from the proposed new tax on high-value insurance plans, while everyone else will be hit with the new tax. Those shielded would include: workers in construction, mining, forestry, fishing, certain agriculture jobs, and longshoremen.
• A handful of physician-owned hospitals being built around the country would be permitted to get referrals from the doctors who own them, avoiding a new ban in the Senate bill that will apply to hospitals built in the future. Without mentioning Nebraska or other states by name, the Senate bill pushes back some legal deadlines by several months, in effect making a few hospitals that are near completion eligible to continue receiving referrals from the doctors who own them.
• Doctors and hospitals in North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Utah and Wyoming, will get paid more than providers elsewhere under provisions in the bill.
• Tanning salons will be hit with a 10 percent tax, replacing the cosmetic surgery tax originally proposed. This comes as no surprise as physicians have lobbyists, while tanning salons do not.

The Zogby poll was conducted between Dec. 15 and Dec. 18 and surveyed likely voters.