I noted a couple of days ago the way that Congressman Ted Poe‘s inconsistent position on medical privacy. Representative Poe claims to oppose government invasion of private medical records in the context of health care reform, but he actually voted to legalize virtually unrestrained government invasion of private medical records when he voted for the Patriot Act, and supported the extension of the Patriot Act this year without any reform at all.

Yesterday, Poe continued to display his legislative split personality. On the one hand, when it came to criticizing the Democrats health care reform legislation, Poe decried the way that government bureaucracies are “insensitive” to human needs. He said, “Living under government tyranny destroys the human spirit, the mind, the soul, and the body. The monopoly of government kills off the notion of individuality. Bureaucracies have an insensitive cookie-cutter solution for everything.”

On the very same day, Congressman Poe had the opportunity to actually do something about the problem of insensitive government bureaucracy. He had the chance to vote for H.R. 946, the Plain Writing Act. The Plain Writing Act, introduced by William Lacy Clay, will require federal government agencies to communicate with the people they serve in a way that is readily comprehensible to those constituencies – if it is signed into law.

The House of Representatives approved the legislation yesterday, with such support that 139 Republicans joined 247 Democrats to vote in favor. Ted Poe was not among them. Poe was one of 33 Republicans that voted against the Plain Writing Act.

It seems that Congressman Poe is happy to use the idea of unresponsive government bureaucracy as an excuse to oppose Democratic legislation, but when he’s given the opportunity to actually make government bureaucracies more responsive, he won’t lift a finger to do it.

Tags: congress, government, house of representatives, plain writing, ted poe