CBO to Congress- Pick the Baucus Plan
The CBO, or Congressional Budget Office, just announced today that the Baucus healthcare bill will not add to the deficit and will cost $829 billion over the next 10 years. We of course know that this will cost about $3 trillion over the next 10 years as their numbers are always wrong. But that aside, its much better news than the first bill we got a look at over the summer. What’s the difference between the two? The public option.
The bill Max Baucus has produced from the Senate Finance Committee does not have a public option. Oddly, it is the ONLY bill in any committee of Congress that the CBO says will not add to the deficit. This puts Obama in a pickle. He promised not to raise taxes. He promised not to pass a bill that raises the deficit. And he promised healthcare for all. So which promise will he break do you think?
I hope for everyone’s sake he throws out the public option and just allows insurance companies to compete nationally for our business. There are ways to get everyone covered without a public option that either adds to the deficit or raises taxes on the middle class. Democrats can’t have everything they want, so they have to choose. Voters- make them pay in the mid terms. Make them pay for their irresponsibility. Make them pay for their ignorance. Vote them out in 2010.
