Compared to the House Democratic health bill, which is now over 2,000 pages, this plan doesn't kill as many trees, weighing in at only 219 pages.

Republicans picked a title that I'm sure you will hear again and again, the "Common Sense Health Care Reform and Affordability Act."

The bill makes a statement on the first page, saying the purpose is to approve health reform, without:

(1) raising taxes; (2) cutting Medicare benefits for seniors; (3) adding. to the national deficit; (4) intervening in the doctor-patient relationship; or (5) instituting a government takeover of health care.

The cost of the bill was unclear, but it certainly is much, much less than the plan from Democrats, because there is no plan of subsidies to help people buy insurance and no new taxes.

There are tax credits and expanded health savings accounts, which would certainly have an impact on the deficit.

The Congressional Budget Office reported last nigth that the bill would reduce the budget deficit by $68 billion by 2019, reducing the number of uninsured Americans by three million, leaving 52 million uninsured, a figure that is sure to be ridiculed by Democrats.

But Republicans found some figures that backed their arguments about why GOP ideas might help consumers as well.

"CBO Confirms GOP Plan Will Lower Health Care Premiums, Lower Deficit Without Tax Hikes on Families & Small Businesses," said a press release issued last night.

The GOP plan would allow interstate purchasing of health insurance, includes medical liability reforms and bans any taxpayer money from going to abortion services.

What about some of the other fine print? Well, there is one of the ole "such sums" as necessary in this bill, dealing with efforts to cut down on fraud related to Medicare providers.

This bill fails the Neal Boortz test, because the word "freedom" is not found in the bill.

As for how many mentions of the word "shall", there aren't as many in the GOP bill, because it's only 219 pages long, as compared to over 2,000 for the Democratic bill.

But when you compare the number of mentions to the length of the bill, Republicans use the word "shall" at almost the exact same rate as the Dems.

On page 169 of the GOP bill, the plan gives health insurance companies the right to raise your premiums or overall costs by as much as 50% if you refuse to participate in "wellness" programs.

"A group health plan (or a health insurance issuer with respect to health insurance coverage) may vary premiums and cost-sharing by up to 50 percent of the value of the benefits under the plan (or coverage) based on participation in a standards-based wellness program."

In an effort to get states to cut down on the number of uninsured, the plan would gives states monetary incentives - reduce those uninsured numbers, and you get extra money for health services from the feds.

That's on page 27. If you want to look through the bill and find some more gems, go to http://is.gd/4Mvgj

Let me know what you find.