Harry Reid and the Pages of Gold

The Senate version of the health care bill is out. And it's big. And expensive. And puts J. K. Rowling to shame.

Let me explain.

The bill is 2,074 pages long.

CNN reports the cost of the bill, over 10 years, is calculated at $849,000,000,000

That's $409,353,905.50 per page.

J. K. Rowling's seven-book Harry Potter series sold 325-million copies in the first 10 years. At 4,195 pages, at the hardcover price of $24.95, that works out to $8,108,750,000 in sales (and the amount is less, if any of those sales were cheaper paperback versions).

Amount per page sold in a Harry Potter book? $1,932,955.90

That means a single page of the Senate bill is worth 211.7 times more than a page from a Harry Potter book.

Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) says he will read the entire bill aloud on the Senate floor before allowing a vote.

I hope he does. And I hope he then reads the entire Harry Potter series aloud. Then, Harry Reid can see if his bill is really worth more than a Harry Potter book.

One final thought: both Rowling and Reid are masters of fiction. The difference is that I have the choice of not buying Rowling's writings. Reid demands I pay for his.