Yeah, well what you said is just a tactic to try and sway people to think what you believe. See where that line of reasoning goes?

I do engineering for government contracts. The spec for the system I work on covers thousands of pages. I've read about 6" thick worth of it

I've read and implemented big specs too and I know how much work they take to produce. And I know darn well it wasn't some committee of smart and well-intentioned elected representatives that wrote it.

then they drill down into exactly what kind of thread you can have on a fastener and exactly how you are allowed to stress a weld for the next 1,000 pages. But it stems from previous experiences and errors, and it leads to a better product (though a more expensive one).

Are you seriously claiming the health care bill is so big because it's a precise engineering document which "stems from previous experiences and errors, and it leads to a better product"?

If so, how much does 10,000 pages of high-quality engineering documentation cost to produce?

Who do you think paid for it?

I think you're just imagining that it's what you want it to be.