SPIN METER: 'War and Peace' in 209 Pages?

FILE - These Oct. 28, top, and Oct. 29, 2009, file photos show copies of the House version of the...

FILE - These Oct. 28, top, and Oct. 29, 2009, file photos show copies of the House version of the health care bill held during two Capitol Hill news conferences: above, Rep. John Shadegg, R-Ariz., holds a copy in a binder, below, Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio, left, stands behind a loose copy of the bill, which appears to have doubled in size from the previous day. (AP Photo/Files)

(AP)

Republicans are using everything short of forklifts to show Americans that Democratic health care legislation is an unwieldy mountain of paper. They pile it high on desks, hoist it on a shoulder trussed in sturdy rope and tell people it's longer than "War and Peace," which it isn't.

Although they complain they don't have time to read all of it, they found the time to tape it together, page by page, so they could roll it up the steps of the Capitol like super-sized toilet paper and show how very long it is.

Size matters in the health care debate because Republicans have turned the length of the legislation into a symbol: Big, unwieldy bill means big, overreaching government.

Even bigger when you display double-spaced copies with double-wide margins and large print — then pile copies of the House and Senate bills together so that the cameras see something monstrously tall.

Lawmakers routinely debate massive legislation without absorbing every word. They employ people to find what matters to them.

Indeed, legislation of comparable size was used to redefine an area of much more limited federal responsibility, education. That was the No Child Left Behind Act from the agenda of Republican President George W. Bush.

The nation's health care system accounts for one-sixth of the economy and no one really expects brevity when reinventing something so complex.

No one really expects the Republicans' theatrical legislation inflation to stop, either.

Five Republican senators displayed the massive legislation on their desks during the weekend vote to bring the Senate health bill to full debate, as GOP lawmakers have been doing since the House bill came out earlier.

As if he risked a hernia carrying it any other way, Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa was seen carrying the House Democratic bill on his shoulder, all roped together. GOP Rep. John Culberson of Texas brought a copy to a Capitol Hill rally and threw its loose pages to the crowd, like meat to lions.