Rep. Todd Akin greets Capitol protesters today.

WASHINGTON — Chanting “Kill the Bill, Kill the Bill,” thousands of people are rallying this afternoon at the U.S. Capitol, protesting Democrats’ health-care legislation and blaming Washington for a host of perceived ills from high taxes to government bailouts.

GOP organizers of the “Hands Off Our Health Care” rally planned the show of opposition hoping to diminish chances that Democrats can muster sufficient support in a vote on the long-debated legislation that could take place as early as Saturday.

Rep. Roy Blunt was part of a parade of House members and conservative activists exhorting the boisterous crowd assembled at the Capitol’s west front.

“In the avalanache of misleading statements, the biggest misleading statement made is we have to do what (House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi wants to do or we don’t do anything. Republicans have better ideas,” said Blunt, R-Springfield, speaking at a podium on which the nearly 2,000-page Democratic legislation was perched.

Democrats will hold a 71-vote advantage in the chamber thanks to a special election victory in New York this week. But passage of the legislation isn’t assured given concerns by moderate Democrats about provisions for public insurance and funding for abortions.

Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., told STLtoday this week that he doesn’t plan to support the legislation because “it does not represent the right balance for the people I represent.”

Chances of passage may have been improved by endorsements today from the 40-million member AARP and the American Medical Association. 

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va., said at the rally that he expects Republicans to stick together in opposing the legislation and added that the GOP will be working between now and the weekend to persuade “common-sense Democrats” to bolt their party.

Rep. Todd Akin, R-Town & Country, was one of the first speakers, leading the crowd in the Pledge of Allegience.

“It is altogether fitting and proper that we do this, and it drives the liberals crazy,” he said, before delivering a mostly correct version in the loud setting albeit omitting the word “indivisible.”

Speaker after speaker skewered the Obama administration for what were described as efforts to expand the reach of government into people’s lives and the economy.

Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., a rally organizer and crowd favorite, asserted that “Speaker Pelosi is poised with her health-care bill to take over 18 percent of the economy.”

Actor Jon Voight, among celebrities on the dais, deployed strong language in rebuking President Barack Obama. 

“President Obama has his own obsession about trying to ram this health care bill through to create a socialist America,” he said.