Read the bill

I just got a "Health Care Reform Alert" from my senator John Cornyn (see picture below of the Hon. Mr. Cornyn and my sweetheart at a Pat Green concert at the Nutty Brown).

In what has become one of the Republicans' primary attacks against the health insurance reform bills, the first sentence of Cornyn's email lambasts the Senate's "2,074-page health care bill."

Who cares how many pages it is? Or how long it takes to read it. What does the number of pages have to do with the purpose of the law?

Sure, some big bills are also horrible laws. President Bush's Patriot Act, which snuffed out centuries-old civil liberties after just a few hours of congressional debate, was 348 pages long. The U.S. tax code is currently 67,204 pages long and counting.

A lot of big books are classics. Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" tips the scale at almost 1,400 pages. Heaven only knows how many pages are in the Bible. And some small texts are equally poignant. The Gettysburg Address is famously only 186 words. Depending on what you think about hunting from helicopters, Sarah Palin's "Going Rouge" is a meaty 413 pages.

In the same way, small page numbers don't necessarily correlate with good laws. The Congressional resolution authorizing the Iraq War was just six pages long, including this goodie: "Whereas Iraq both poses a continuing threat to the national security of the United States and...continu[es] to possess and develop a significant chemical and biological weapons capability, actively seek[s] a nuclear weapons capability, and support[s] and harbor[s] terrorist organizations."

The much-reviled "Troubled Asset Relief Program," also known as the Wall Street bailout bill, was comparatively light reading at just 169 pages. The "Cash for Clunkers" bill handing out $4,500 of your hard-earned tax money for P.O.S.'s like 1998 Chevy Blazers: 21 pages.

And what about reading through all these pages? Reading a bill is not like reading "The Catcher in the Rye." A lot of it is made up of endless references to and quotations from previous laws—striking out, amending, and adding new language.

I wonder when the last time Sen. Cornyn curled up by the fireplace with a good copy of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (the goliath legislation largely responsible for our current health insurance system that he's defending). I doubt he has. I know I haven't.