The vast majority of bills are not read in their entirety by "everyone in Congress". They are not read in their entirety by most of the members of Congress. I know this for sure because I have heard it spoken of openly by a few people in Congress from time to time. This applies to Democrats and Republicans alike, needless to say.

Look, it's a buddy system. It's a power structure with major players and minor players on 2 teams. It's two teams out to beat each other in the political game. A few of the major players on the ruling team get together with some smart professionals and they put together a huge, bloated piece of legislation which they want passed on behalf, usually, of some very powerful special interests. They then inform "the team" that it's time to rally round and support the party and "do the right thing for the good of the country" (meaning our team). Of the various members on "the team", a handful of them may take the time to thoroughly read and understand the entire bill. Most of them just gloss over it quickly or they let someone else tell them what's in it. Most of them vote the party line without having ever really read the bill very carefully at all...they probably don't have the time to in many cases or the patience to, they figure that their bosses must be right anyway, and they figure they'd better be good little boys and do what's expected of them. If they do, then they might get a promotion at some point, right? They might rise higher in the party structure.

The bill passes, and it is voted for by quite a few people who are far from having read it in its entirety. It is also voted against by quite a few people who are far from having read it in its entirety.

That's standard in Washington. It's standard in pretty well any huge bureaucratic organization. A few people fully grasp what's going on...most just go through the motions.

It's that way with BOTH parties. It always has been.

They only complain about it when the OTHER party does it.