We wish Congress deserved the type of praise health care professionals do because of their dedication to fighting disease. Unfortunately, it does not.

Last Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled a new national health care proposal. She then began pushing for the House to vote on it this week.

We will make a prediction, with full confidence that we are correct: If the House votes on the bill this week, not one representative will understand the measure fully. It is 1,990 pages long. We doubt that even Pelosi, D-Calif., could go far beyond the talking points about it prepared by her staff.

Most journalists will not read the entire bill, either. They simply do not have time. As a result, only a tiny minority - fewer than 1 percent, in our estimation - of Americans will know what it is that Democrats in the House intend to foist upon us.

That is not an accident or a necessity. It is a plan by Pelosi and other liberal lawmakers, who don't want the public to have time to discuss the bill. They are aware that during the past several months, serious flaws have been uncovered in previous health care proposals - after the public has had opportunities to analyze and discuss them.

That will not happen this time, if Pelosi, President Barack Obama and other liberal, big-government advocates in Washington have their way.

We urge representatives from our states to insist that time be given for discussion and debate about the bill - at least for Americans to understand it. Doing otherwise is not government of the people, by the people, for the people.