By DEROY MURDOCK, Scripps Howard News Service

SAN FRANCISCO - H.R. 3692, the monstrous healthcare reform bill that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D Calif., unleashed last week, comprises 1,990 pages of dense, nearly impenetrable prose. This legislation is precisely 10 sheets shy of four reams of paper.

ObamaCare promises to make medicine cheaper by making it costlier. Case in point: The Senate Finance Committee proposes a brand-new tax on medical devices.

New research predicts that ObamaCare will swell America's Medicaid population by nearly 16 million individuals. This proposed legislation would welcome nearly one in five Americans into government-run medical welfare.

As healthcare reform lurches forward in Washington, proposed legislation would chop nearly half a trillion dollars from Medicare. This is yet another example of greedy, cold-hearted, racist Republicans slicing Medicare so they can laugh as Granny shivers on a subway grate and nibbles her cat food with a broken fork.

In one of today's richest ironies, America's fiscal health -- such as it is -- hinges on the generosity of the Chinese Communist Party. Annoying Beijing's mandarins could prompt them to skip our Treasury auctions.

As Americans debate bailouts, Washington's assembly-line-to-junkyard automotive largesse, and its proposed annexation of our health clinics and surgical theaters, conversations on this island recently were as refreshing as the trade winds. Words like growth, opportunity, and wealth expansion -- nearly taboo in America -- were not just uttered, but celebrated.

As the healthcare reform debate roars on, Uncle Sam resembles a restless college senior who is flunking economics, finance, and management. Despite a report card full of Fs, he suddenly announces: "I want to go to medical school!"

The raging national debate over ObamaCare revolves largely around spending. Should Washington plunge itself $1.1 trillion deeper into medicine? While this conversation dominates the headlines, Americans also should consider how tax cuts could improve the delivery and payment of health care.

If ObamaCare were a prescription drug, ads for it would say: "Use with extreme caution. Side effects include regulatory headaches, irritated taxpayers, and swollen unemployment."

That's right. Serious studies indicate that ObamaCare would kill millions of jobs. With 9.4 percent unemployment, this is hardly the time to foul up the labor market even further.

"Obama talks about $600 billion. The Congressional Budget Office talks about $1.1 trillion," a gray-haired man in a striped shirt bluntly told Democratic Senator Arlen Specter at a town hall meeting in Lebanon, Pennsylvania last Tuesday. "I have spent 40 years in government," this vocal American continued.