(CBS/AP/iStockPhoto)
Because they know their constituents prefer pictures to facts, Republican opponents of health care reform love to provide visuals of to back up their claim that the Democrats' health care reform bill is so long, my goodness, it's unwieldy and dangerous and shouldn't be passed.
The House health care bill, at 314,900 words, is the wordiest bill on congressional record, they say. Indeed, it's 100 times longer than the average bill in recent years, according to a data analysis by OpenCongress.org.
But that review also found that Republicans wrote five of the 10 longest bills in Congress since 1999. They wrote the second-longest longest bill, a transportation proposal submitted to the House by Alaska Rep Don Young in 2005. It's just 68 words shorter than the House's chart-topping health care bill and still 259 words longer than the Senate's version.
Iowa GOP Rep Steve King holds a copy of the House health care bill, trussed in sturdy rope, in front of the U-S Capitol in Washington during a Republican news conference. Ooo, look: pictures! (AP)
The Senate bill came in at 2,074 double-spaced pages, 84 more pages than the House version. The quotes came tumbling in:
"Larger than 'War and Peace,'" howled Utah Sen Orrin Hatch.
"Exceeding even 'War and Peace' in length," said Rep Roy Blunt of Missouri, said of the House bill.
Said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas: "'War and Peace' — some people consider it the greatest book ever written, but most people recognize the novel because at 1,284 pages its length is often the butt of jokes. Now imagine trying to read something that long overnight."
Turns out Leo Tolstoy's novel is longer than either bill. Full translated versions are nearly twice as long.
--Total number of words in House bill: 319,145
--Total number of words in Senate version: 318,512 (shorter than the House version despite consuming more paper
--Total number of words in Tolstoy's novel: 560,000 to 670,000 words, depending on the translation
--Total number of words in George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind: More than 280,000
Don't know if everything the Senator says about the bill is accurate but at least he proves that, despite its length, somebody's read it.
Comments
Republicans: Projecting as usual.
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