U.S. Rep. Phil Roe, R-1st, of Johnson City, said Thursday that he plans to participate in the floor debate Saturday on the 2,000-page health care bill now being readied.

"This bill is corrupt," charged Roe in speaking to Northeast Tennessee reporters in a telephone conference call. "It (HR 3962) has a stink about it that I just can't stand."

Roe said the bill is essentially the same as HR3200, which was presented in August, "except it's been worsened by all the deals" added to pick up votes.

"It's really unbelieveable what's in this bill," Roe declared.

He said that on page 1,514, the bill gets into standards for "menu variability" on vending machine food, to be set by a health commissioner. "They're talking about doughnuts in this health care bill," he said.

Roe also pointed out that, on page 1,786, the bill deals with a "sewer system at an Indian reservation."

The Tennessee congressman also criticized an amendment that he said, includes a biofuels tax credit that he believes was added "to buy somebody's vote."

He said the bill includes not only a "public option" for government health care insurance to compete with private insurance, but also a health insurance sales "exchange."

The pay for CEOs of insurance companies that participate would be limited by the bill, Roe said, "except if you're the head of the American Association of Retired Persons," who is allowed to make more than $1 million per year.

He said that the AARP, which last week endorsed the bill, "makes most of its money from selling insurance."

The bill also exempts four states, including Nevada, home of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Roe said he has canceled a number of engagements in East Tennessee to be able to stay in Washington this weekend to be part of the debate.

He predicted that Saturday "will be an historic day. I want to be on the House floor" when the vote is taken for "the biggest social vote since 1965," the year a major Civil Rights Bill became law.

"I want to hear the AARP explain," Roe said, how $400 billion to $500 billion can be taken out of Medicare funding, while 3.5 million more people are added every year for 20 years, even though Medicare is already forecast to outspend premiums by 2017 at current funding levels.

The Tennessee congressman, a retired physician, also said he would press for an explanation as to how a 25 percent reduction in payments to doctors who treat Medicare patients can do anything but reduce access to doctors by seniors, decrease the quality of the care they receive, and increase overall costs.

If Medicare payments to doctors, already low, are cut by 25 percent, "I can guarantee you" that most doctors will stop treating Medicare patients," Roe said.

The "fiscal note" on the bill is now "over $1 trillion," Roe said, but "if you think it will really be just a trillion," go back and look at the exponential growth of TennCare, which tripled in its first 10 years, nearly bankrupting the state until it was cut back.

Roe said he believes that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif, and others pushing the bill forward have enough votes for passage, without any Republican votes.

Democratic leaders have been "bending and breaking arms" to assure the bill's passage, he said, but noted that U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Nashville, has said he will vote against the bill, according to The Tennessean on Thursday.

Roe predicted that U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, will be the only congressman from Tennessee to vote for the bill.

Roe said he does not expect U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher, D-9th, of Southwest Virginia, to vote for it. "I'll bet he'll vote no," Roe said, based on comments Boucher made at a Kingsport health care forum they both attended in August.

Roe also said he does not think another Democrat whose district borders his, Rep. Heath Shuler, D-N.C., of Western North Carolina, will vote for the bill.

A "deficit-neutral" bill was introduced this week by Republicans, Roe said, that the Congressional Budget Office has said will actually save money, lower health-care costs 8 percent to 10 percent for individuals and small businesses.

This $68 billion bill, introduced as an amendment by House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, would cover pre-existing conditions, Roe said, by allowing insurance companies to do business across state line.

The Republican bill is only about 120 pages long, Roe said.

He said it would allow young people stay on their parent's health-care plan until they are 26 years old, and would take away "lifetime limits" that cap insurance payments at a certain level, forcing people with chronic conditions into bankruptcy.