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Health Law Repeal: The Words Matter

Updated on Jan. 19, 2011.

On Tuesday H.R. 2, the Republican-backed bill to repeal the 2010 health care overhaul law, came to the House Floor.  The bill is not expected to come to a vote in the Senate, so this week’s House debate is likely to be remembered as purely symbolic.  With members speaking more to the C-SPAN cameras than to each other, the words they choose take on extra significance.

View video excerpts of the debate.

The “word clouds” below show the most-frequently used words chosen by Republican and Democratic members, respectively, during Tuesday’s floor debate.  Common words, the phrase “health care,” and legislative niceties such as “Mr. Speaker, I yield my time” were excluded to clarify the partisan differences.

The combined remarks of Republican members: 

 

The combined remarks of Democratic members:

 

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

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