Yes, more bureaucracy; but how to measure it?

In the Republican response to President Barack Obama’s address on health care before a joint session of Congress on Sept. 9, 2009, U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., a heart surgeon by profession, repeated a popular Republican talking point, saying the health care reform bill introduced in the House would  “create 53 new government bureaucracies.”

This claim originates with a detailed list complied by the House Republican Conference, which you can view

here

.

Fifty-three new bureaucracies sounds like a lot, and the list is so specific, we decided to dig into it to see if it’s legitimate. We ended up giving Boustany a

Barely True

.