Tag: health care insurance bailout

Here is the Congressional Budget Office’s Score for the Health Care Insurance Bailout, which was just released now, Thursday morning, March 18, 2010.  (thank you, HuffPo)   It is a pdf.  Since it’s a government document, I’m going to post it here, sans the charts, and let you all have a look see instead of pointing you to a pundit.

http://big.assets.huffingtonpo…

and so it begins,

Honorable Nancy Pelosi Speaker U.S. House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515

Dear Madam Speaker:

March 18, 2010

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) have completed a preliminary estimate of the direct spending and revenue effects of an amendment in the nature of a substitute to H.R. 4872, the Reconciliation Act of 2010; that amendment (hereafter called “the reconciliation proposal”) was made public on March 18, 2010. The estimate is presented in three ways:

full text continues

Ruh roh !   Somebody might have to delay their trip Down Under.

The Congressional Budget Office did not release a score today, after all, on the proposed “fixes” to the health insurance bill,  which means that the 72  hour countdown clock hasn’t started ticking yet.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.c…

And this pushes the vote back to Sunday, March 21st, at the earliest.

h/t to BrianBeutler who bothered to stay and see what was going on, none of the other on line news sources, even (shudder) Twitter,  have much up about this yet.

Okay, now the Hill has something up.

http://thehill.com/homenews/ho…

No CBO Score Wednesday night, Saturday Healthcare vote unlikely

Rep. Robert Andrews (D, NJ) :

“My understanding is this has been much more technical than substantive,” Andrews said.  “It’s not like what tax has to go or what spending has to go.”

“The reason it’s taking so long, in part, is that we want to be sure that we have a score that’s solid as a rock for procedural purposes and potentially litigation purposes down the road,” Andrews said. “We all assume that the same forces that fought this so vociferously in the Congress will fight it in the courts, and we want to be prepared for that.”

Richard Trumka the Union leader was called back to the White House this afternoon for an emergency meeting, which would lead one to guess that the Union deal they had made about removing much of the dreadful excise tax on health care benefits worth over a certain amount,  might be in peril.  If the CBO is taking this long to score the bill, it may be that the reconciliation tweaks to get the House happy with the Senate version, are doing unexpected things to the financial impact.

Or perhaps the WH just needs more time to twist more arms.   Having succeeded in getting true single payer advocate Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, who was holding out for the Public Option,  for an airplane ride in Air Force One,  some more domestic rendition flights may need to be scheduled.  

Since the Democrats intend to actually vote on the health insurance bail out next week, now that Speaker Pelosi has repeated that the Public Option is Off of Our Table, and said,

 “I’m quite sad that a public option isn’t in there. ”  

http://tpmlivewire.talkingpoin…

Sad in the Baby Seal Syndrome way, as she also said she was for single payer, herself  (eyeroll icon øø),

….   they’ve sent out a memo with the schedule (try not to laugh too hard at the thought of the them sticking to one) and some talking points for Congresspeople to take back to their districts during the Easter vacation.   They also told the members to just shut up on reconciliation:

http://www.politico.com/news/s…

http://www.politico.com/livepu…

“At this point, we have to just rip the band-aid off and have a vote – up or down; yes or no?” the memo said. “Things like reconciliation and what the rules committee does is INSIDE BASEBALL.”

“People who try and start arguments about process on this are almost always against the actual policy substance too, often times for purely political reasons.”

I take it they are going to do everything in their power to prevent just that – an up or down vote – from occurring with the Senate and the Public Option, so look for Sen. Bernie Sanders’ proposed amendment to mysteriously and quietly vanish into the ether.