Playing the Game

Have you ever tried to go to the Government website and read the bills they are voting on?  They're pretty much unreadable to the random citizen.  So much legal talk and ridiculous loop-de-loops.  How are we ever to know what in the world the laws are? 

One thing I have heard mentioned that I want to look at briefly is the idea of having multiple topics in each bill.  I think it becomes a big messy part of the political "us vs them" debacle.  Let me try to present a scenario to simplify what I think is happening.  I'm going to call the political parties simply A and B, and make up a ridiculous bill. 

'A' proposes a new bill to better fund firefighters by adding a 25 cent tax to every block of cheese sold.  Also in this bill is a provision for putting a clown on every street corner in NYC, and it will be paid for by a $1/day tax added to all citizens living in California.  'B' is in favor of the firefighter portion of the bill, but thinks the clown half is stupid and they can't in good conscience vote for it.  B has more voters, so the bill is not passed, then A takes to the media and claims that B wants your house to burn down. 

Have you seen this happen?  It is a big part of the spreading of misinformation.  I've even seen one party write up a bill and one or two members of that party say they won't vote for the bill because of just one or two points included in it.  I just don't understand why they mix in so many unrelated things.  Why can't we just have one bill about the firefighters, and a separate bill about the clowns?  Then A and B could agree on passing the firefighter bill, and the clown one is less likely to pass.

I realize that bills are not this simple, any topic is going to include a lot of complicated details, but I don't understand when unrelated things show up.  It becomes a game.  We'll give you this point if you'll give us that one.  Trading votes.  Not ok. Can we make them stop?  Can we make them limit each bill to one topic?  How can we ensure they are voting in the best interest of the people instead of their party lines, or donor pressure? 

Similarly, the topics of term limits, or pay raises, or donor money, how do we the people get the lawmakers to pass these changes that theoretically would 'hurt' them?  I feel helpless to change the system that I have no faith in.  States just keep electing the same people every time, nothing changes.  They get better and better at playing the game and lining their own pockets.