"Read the Bill" marathon continues ... Day 3 of plowing through 2,409 pages of health care bill

It's Day 3 of the "Read the Bill" marathon at Republican Party of Virginia headquarters where volunteers have been calling in for 30-minute shifts, day and night, since 8:00 Wednesday morning reading the 2,409-page health care bill. Listen in live at www.RPV.org/ReadTheBill.

Reading out loud the past 48 hours, volunteers had gotten through page 2,148 as of 8:00 this morning. At that pace, all 2,409 pages of the bill will be finished up around 1:00 this afternoon.

Chairman Pat Mullins kicked off the event Wednesday morning and is slated to be the closing reading this afternoon.

A lot of people have asked RPV why they were doing this. The response:

The reasoning is simple: if it has taken our team 48+ hours of non-stop reading to get through this bill, do you think the average Democratic member of Congress has read this bill they're rushing to pass on Sunday? We've found some outrageous stuff in this legislation that has nothing to do with health care, like a federal mandate to put nutrition information on fast food menus.

I don't think you'll see that in any of the Democratic talking points.

And there are tons of other examples of things in there that have nothing to do with health insurance. But you'd never know it was in there unless you read the bill. Got an FSA or HSA through your employer? There are severe limits on how much money can be put into these accounts and how it can be used, like a prohibition on the purchase of non-prescription drugs.

And we haven't even touched on the fact that this bill — and the reconciliation package — levy billions upon billions of dollars in new taxes on citizens of all income levels.

This bill is a Democrat Christmas tree of government expansion, packed full of pet projects and fixes to pet peeves — a vision of the federal government as the cure for any and every ill in society.

And you wouldn't know any of this, unless you read the bill. That's why we've been reading it. Hopefully, Gerry Connolly, Glenn Nye, Tom Perriello and Rick Boucher have been listening. Because if they really knew what was in here, there's no way they'd still be undecided.

Please contact these Virginia Democrat Congressmen and ask that they vote "no" on the bill:

Congressman Tom Perriello – (202) 225-4711
Congressman Rick Boucher – (202) 225-3861
Congressman Glenn Nye – (202) 225-4215
Congressman Gerry Connolly – (202) 225-1492