GOP Takes the Health Care Debate Online

As the House of Representatives prepares to take up debate on the Democrats' massive health care overhaul, Republicans are preparing Internet-based efforts to present a united front against the bill.

The bill, Republican leaders say, is bloated with questionable provisions that few citizens -- or legislators -- have had a chance to debate. Now, they intend to pick apart those provisions online.

"All you need to know is there are 1,990 pages," Republican House leader John Boehner said of the health care measure. "That should tell you everything." Boehner presented in an op-ed ways to make the legislative process more transparent, commenting that it is typical for "massive bills [to be] unveiled in the dark of night and rushed to a vote before anyone in America could possibly know the details."

To prove to voters they intend to dissect those details, House Republicans will gather in a congressional reading room this afternoon to pour through the bill -- and will invite citizens to join them online. Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) is Webcasting the reading, which is taking place from 2 to 6 p.m. this afternoon.

Meanwhile, the Republican caucus is using the social networking site Amplify to highlight portions of the bill with which they take issue. On their page healthcaretruth.amplify.com, Republican users share the actual text of the bill up for discussion and leave a comment. Other users can leave their own comments or share the content using Twitter, Facebook, Digg and other social networking tools.

Reps. Boehner, Bob Latta (R-Ohio) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) spearheaded the project, and Boehner introduced it to other House Republicans this morning at their weekly members-only meeting.

"As House Republican members continue to move through this massive bill, we wanted a tool that would make it easy to show Americans what it means in plain English -- the general public doesn't have the time or the inclination to read a 2,000-page bill," Nick Schaper, the director of new media for Boehner's office, told the Hotsheet. "We'd really like to start a section-by-section discussion on the bill."

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The GOP will continue its online push against the bill on Thursday, when Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) will lead a 12-hour online town hall to discuss health care.

After the 2008 elections, when the Obama campaign skillfully ran online fundraising and volunteering efforts, the conventional wisdom has been that Democrats are outdoing Republicans in engaging voters with new technology. Schaper said that's no longer the case.

The election "was a real spark for our members to realize this needs to be a major part of our communications strategy," Schaper said. "This is no longer a gimmick. This is how the American people want to receive their news and want to hear from us."

Since then, Republicans have embraced the Web, liveblogging events like the 2009 budget debate and producing for-the-Web videos on issues like the financial crisis. Republicans have an edge on Twitter, with some of the most followed and most active accounts from Capitol Hill.

Still, one could argue the GOP has yet to match House Democrats in online creativity.