The CBO is FINALLY out with its score for the Finance committee bill, as amended last week. It comes in well under the $900 billion target stipulated by the president in his joint session speech a few weeks ago.
From Politico:
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the amended Baucus bill will cost $829 billion over 10 years. The CBO estimated the original bill would cost $774 billion over the next decade.
There's a lot that's still problematic with the Baucus proposal, but we should be able to make some important fixes after the bill advances out of Finance.
Politico continues:
With a cost below the president's $900 billion target, the CBO estimate smooths the bill's path to passage out of the Finance Committee. Still, the committee process is not quite finished. Baucus has promised lawmakers time to review the bill and they could still raise issues and ask for amendments before the bill is voted on.
It should be noted that the Finance committee has had access to the bill since last weekend, so they've had plenty of time to review it. The only "news" for them is this cost estimate, which should now assuage concerns (not create new ones) about the bill's financial profile.
Hopefully, this means we can get to a vote in the committee tomorrow or Friday, with action on a merged bill on the senate floor by later next week. Supposedly, Reid and negotiators from both the HELP and Finance committees have already been working hard on merging the bills from both committees.
Chief obstructionist Senator Grassley even said it might be possible to get to a vote TODAY, if the score comes back under target. My sense is that would be overly ambitious, considering Baucus', shall we say, slow style, but I think it means it would be unlikely we'd have to delay the vote until next week.
Grassley predicted that the Senate Finance Committee would easily pass their version of healthcare reform if the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) claims, in their report expected today, it does not add to the federal deficit.
"If we get a score today -- early enough today, we'd have the bill done today," he said.
UPDATE:
Douglas Elmendorf, Director of the CBO, says that the bill as written will REDUCE the federal budget deficit by over $81 billion over the 10-year window. He also says coverage would be increased from 83% to 94% of the population. Could be better, but I'm encouraged that we might finally be moving forward to improve the bill outside the committee framework.
For the second 10 years of the legislation, Elmendorf provides analysis that should reassure budget hawks:
Consequently, CBO expects that the proposal, if enacted, would reduce federal budget deficits over the ensuing decade relative to those projected under current law—with a total effect during that decade that is in a broad range between one-quarter percent and one-half percent of GDP.
More at the Director's blog. And here's the full report.