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Whitehouse: No Excuse for GOP! Health Bill Is Shorter Than Harry Potter Novel!
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)
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In their effort to stop health care reform, Republicans have frequently pointed to the bill's physical size to indicate its excess.
As Think Progress pointed out, when the debates moved to the Senate, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) made a preemptive strike, using one of the greatest tomes of our time: Harry Potter! On the Senate floor last night the New England Democrat turned the GOPers argument against them.
[The bill] has fewer words than a Harry Potter novel. I don't think it is too much to expect that members of the Senate should be prepared to leaf through the equivalent of a Harry Potter novel when they are embarked on as significant an effort and endeavor as we are in reforming the HC system.
Here's the video, courtesy of Think Progress:
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Kuyleh
December 4, 2009 4:59 PM
Having read the last three Harry Potter novels (the longest ones) in one sit down after the midnight release parties, this strikes me as funny. But I like books, and I'm capable of understanding them. Neither of those facts seems like they would apply to Republicans in my mind.
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LFC
December 4, 2009 5:01 PM
Republicans don't read Harry Potter either. It's the work of Satan worshipers and glorifies demons. Ooooooh! Scary stuff!!!
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LFC
December 4, 2009 5:07 PM in reply to LFC
Of course, Left Behind novels are good so they can plough through those. Or at least they SAY that they read them. Maybe they just buy them and listen to a description on talk radio.
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Kuyleh
December 4, 2009 6:31 PM in reply to LFC
I read Left Behind when it was popular. It's no more a book series than the toilet paper currently sitting in your bathroom. It's one giant author insertion daydream played out in phone calls. So, I could see them understanding it. It's got plenty of small words and "God said this" thrown into it.
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agio
December 4, 2009 5:06 PM
I hear that, at the end of the healthcare bill, Snape kills Dumbledore.
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LFC
December 4, 2009 5:10 PM in reply to agio
Actually, that's the alternate GOP ending being proposed. Snape is United Healthcare, and Dumbledore is a person who thought he was insured. Snape casts a magical billing blocking spell, rendering Dumbledore's policy worthless, allowing him to die in the process.
And yes, I have and continue to have an unbelievably brutal string of delaying tactics thrown in the path of my healthcare providers by UHC.
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dave_in_mpls
December 5, 2009 11:10 AM in reply to LFC
Well, yeah, but Snape was on the Death Panel before he went to the ivory tower.
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Cal Gal
December 5, 2009 3:07 PM in reply to dave_in_mpls
Can't think of a better term for "health" insurance companies than "death eaters."
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happily independent
December 4, 2009 5:29 PM
And in the end after the bill sacrifices its life it gets resurrected as a single payer system and all of America is RESCUED!
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ericf
December 4, 2009 5:33 PM
Whitehouse should smart enough to probably know how the fundies get worked up about Harry Potter. Either he didn't realize how this popular book wouldn't go over as expected, or he's setting up the Republicans to show some nuttiness. Doesn't seem like they need much setting up, but I suppose it's amusing.
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Matt Jones
December 4, 2009 6:02 PM
Man, if they don't like HCR at 256k words, they must really be bummed out by the KJV at 700k+ words.
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Kuyleh
December 4, 2009 6:32 PM in reply to Matt Jones
They probably read NIV.
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Minnesotan
December 4, 2009 6:35 PM in reply to Kuyleh
Most likely NASB - it's the most dumbed down of all the English translations
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sisyphusjns
December 5, 2009 9:49 AM
He should have said, "Sorry we couldn't fit it on a bumper sticker for you."
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rlfast
December 5, 2009 1:48 PM
From Dow Jones, Nov. 10, 2009, in an article about the Intel – AMD lawsuit (which has since been settled out of court): "If the trial does proceed... it could be one of the largest civil litigation trials in terms of scale and number of depositions and documents in U.S. legal history with over 200 million pages of document exchanges, 2,200 hours of deposition and over 10,000 pages of expert reports." Imagine one of the attorneys asking the judge if he had read all 200 million pages!
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ilovebacon
December 5, 2009 4:08 PM
He should have said Bible. Repubs claim to have read the entire Bible (doubtlessly few, if any, have). Why not say it's less than a quarter size of the Bible?
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TheOwl
December 5, 2009 5:03 PM
And both the Harry Potter books and health care reform bill have something in common.
They are fantasies!
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