The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office released a report (PDF) giving the proposed $940 billion health care legislation a boost because it forecasts almost $140 billion in deficit reduction: The Washington Post reports, "The cost of expanding coverage would exceed $200 billion a year by 2019, the CBO said. But new revenue in the package, combined with savings from program cuts, would outpace the cost of coverage, reducing the federal deficit by $138 billion over the next 10 years. The savings would continue to accumulate in the decade thereafter, the CBO said, eventually slicing around $1.2 trillion from the nation's budget gap."
Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) said it would have "the largest deficit reduction of any bill we have adopted in Congress since 1993." The AP has other details: The reconciliation bill's plan "would provide coverage to 32 million people now uninsured through a combination of tax credits for middle class households and an expansion of the Medicaid program for low income people... It would restructure one-sixth of the economy, covering 95 percent of eligible Americans, in the biggest expansion of the social safety net since Medicare was created in 1965. It would also impose new obligations on individuals and businesses, requiring for the first time that most Americans carry health insurance and penalizing medium-sized and large companies."
President Obama has delayed a trip to the Pacific in anticipation that the legislation, which was just released (highlights and text here), will be passed on Sunday. Senator Max Baucus (D-Montana) said, "He may have to twist some arms. He may have to talk to some people. His personal presence helps."
