BaucusCare may not be as cheap as it seems

Yesterday the Congressional Budget Office gave a generally favorable financial review of the health care reform plan proposed by Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), pricing it at $829 billion--which meets President Obama's cap of $900 billion.

But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) isn't swayed. This morning he declared that the bill "has as its foundation a trillion dollars in spending, half a trillion dollars in cuts to Medicare, higher premiums, higher taxes on just about everyone at a time of near double-digit unemployment, and limits on the health care choices that millions of Americans now enjoy."

It makes you sick, doesn't it?

And McConnell doesn't even think BaucusCare in its present form will ever see the light of day. He marked, "It's irrelevant. The bill it’s referring to will never see the light of day."

It might see some bright office lights. Last night McConnell explained, "This partisan Finance Committee proposal will never see the Senate floor since the real bill will be written by Democrat leaders in a closed-to-the-public conference room somewhere in the Capitol." Where? Well, last week the New York Times said Majority Leader Harry Reid may splice BaucusCare into other legislation.

As for the 300 million Americans not in the Senate, my advice is this: Hang on to your hat and watch your wallet.

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