“This is a job-killing health care bill,” said Tony Gagliardi, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business.

Gagliardi’s group represents 7,500 small business owners in the state.

“Small business owners are outraged that so many members of Congress did not have the courage to stand up on behalf of small business,” Gagliardi said.

“It’s what they’re not saying that bothers me,” said Gail Lindley, owner of Denver Bookbinding Company.

The firm, which has been in existence since 1929, has been owned and operated by her family since 1946.

“We specialize in yearbooks, textbooks and special books,” Lindley said. “And we restore and rebind old books.”

“When you’ve been in business a while, you remember the old days,” she said. “I remember when health insurance used to be considered a benefit. Now, it’s considered an entitlement.”

Lindley, who employs 13 people, said people know very little about the new health care bill.

“It’s 2,047 pages long,” she said. “Who’s going to spend the time to read that? I’m not.”

She said she’s concerned about a mandate that business pick up more of the tab for health care.

“Why would government add more burden on to you when it’s tough enough to stay in business?” she asked.

Gagliardi said his group’s research shows 5 million jobs will be lost in five years with an employee mandate.

He said the NFIB has been working for 20 years to lower the cost of health care.

“This bill does nothing to address the cost of care,” he said.

Gagliardi said he’d like to see the federal government allow small businesses to band together to purchase health insurance across state lines, “like we do with homeowners and auto insurance.”

He also said small businesses are not giving up the fight.

“We will continue to work to make changes that help small business,” he said.

Lindley said government, both federal and state, should do more to nurture small business.

“Every time they throw something in there that costs money, it affects small business somehow. Whether that’s in loss of hours, loss of jobs or an increase in the cost of product back to customers, it has some kind of consequence,” she said.