CNSNews.com - Gibbs: Obama Has Only ‘Read a Decent Part’ of Health Care Bill

CNSNews.com - Gibbs: Obama Has Only ‘Read a Decent Part’ of Health Care Bill: "(CNSNews.com) – President Obama has spent some time in the past few months rebutting critics of the health care legislation being debated in Congress, and telling Americans what he insists it does or does not say about certain issues such as abortion and whether people will be able to keep their current health insurance plans. But the president has only read “a decent part” of the legislation he is describing, White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs revealed yesterday.

When a reporter noted at Monday's press briefing that there had been some discussion on Capitol Hill about whether members of Congress would read the text of the health care bill before voting on it, and then asked Gibbs whether the president would read the bill himself before he signs it into law, Gibbs said: “Well, I think he's read a decent part of the legislation that's been bandied around right now, and we should address this as with members of Congress when we have closer to a final piece of legislation.”

The question of whether lawmakers actually read the laws they enact has been a matter of public controversy this year, with people at town hall meetings this summer exhorting their congressional representatives to read the health care bill being debated in Congress.

In February, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) told CNSNews.com that none of his colleagues would be able to read the 1,071-page stimulus bill before voting on it. The final text of that bill was not made available to members of Congress or the public until late at night the day before it was voted into law.

“No, I don’t think anyone will have the chance to [read the entire bill],” Lautenberg had told CNSNews.com."