Read That Huge Healthcare Bill?

ATLANTA -- "I'm reading it right now and it has a great plot."

That's how Democratic Ohio Congressman Dennis Kuchinich answered Monday when I asked him if he'd read his party's nearly 2,000 page healthcare reform bill that could hit the U.S. House floor for debate by the end of the week.

Released late last week by Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the larger bill is a combination of three previous bills.

Rep. Kuchinich was at Georgia's State Capitol on Monday along with Georgia Congressmen David Scott (D) and Lynn Westmoreland (R) for a hearing on the state's bank and mortgage failures.

All three told me they and their staffs are working on going through the massive 1,990 page healthcare bill.

"This is a piece of legislation that's gonna change the direction and the financial stability of this country for ever," Rep. Westmoreland said.

He and other GOP House members accuse the Democrats of crafting the bill behind closed doors and trying to ram it down everyone's throats before anyone can really understand what's in it.

"I just think this has been some type of smoke and mirror ploy," Westmoreland adds.

"Nothing could be further from the truth," says Democratic Atlanta Congressman David Scott.

"We've been working on these bills since June and sometime before that," Scott adds.

While he's not totally satisfied with his own party's bill, Rep. Kuchinich promised not to vote on the huge bill until he's read and understood it.

"Just like they say, 'in baseball you can't hit what you can't see'," Kuchinich told me, "Well, in politics you shouldn't vote for what you can't see."

On Sunday, Republican Georgia Congressman Tom Price delivered a copy of the nearly 2,000 page bill to the Roswell Public Library so anyone can try to read it there.

He also accused Pelosi and the House Democratic leadership of trying to railroad the bill through.

"If the speaker was sincere about wanting the American people to understand this, she would allow this to sit out there for months," Price added.

Democratic leaders in the U.S. Senate have their own version of a healthcare reform bill, but are apparently waiting to see what happens with the House version first.