Harry Reid Debuts New $849 Billion Senate Health Care Bill

Link to the bill at the bottom.

Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) has been busy, busy, busy with his top-secret Senate health care bill. No one but Harry and the lobbyists who ~~wrote it~~ advised him have seen it until now. (Oh, and the Congressional Budget Office, which just revealed it will cost $849 billion dollars.) He’s finally done with all of the merging and writing, and this evening revealed his baby.

The bill includes a government-run insurance plan that would allow states to opt out, and it would extend health care coverage to 31 million additional Americans. States could (technically) be allowed to opt-out of this public option. It is lighter on the abortion-restrictions than the House bill; no Stupak amendment here. It creates a new, “optional” government long-term care plan. It still taxes insurance benefits, but not as harshly as the House bill does. The $849 billion doesn’t include the “doctor fix”, estimated at around $250 billion. Reid says this plan will reduce the deficit. And cover 31 million new people. Plenty of accounting gimmicks buried here!

Reid plans to hold a procedural vote as early as Thursday to begin debate on Saturday with a goal of passage by the end of the year. Most of the delay in revealing the bill was due to Reid’s need to twist enough arms to get the 60 votes he must have for the bill to proceed to debate.

VP Joe Biden held court for more than three hours in a room off the Senate floor. Obama also sent Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle to the Capitol to lobby senators. Adding to the uncertainty was the absence of Max Baucus (D-Mont.), who flew back to Montana to deal with a family emergency. With no margin for error, Reid needs Baucus present for the first vote.

If Reid succeeds in moving the bill onto the Senate floor, Republican Tom Coburn of Oklahoma has threatened to make the clerk read the whole thing aloud before debate can begin. Under Senate rules, any senator can demand that a bill be read before debate. Republicans, however, would have to stay on the floor the entire time to object to Democratic motions to stop the reading.

A bill reading-aloud is an excellent idea, as most in Congress need to have things read to them anyways. Plus, as this mess is over 2000 pages long, it will buy time for people to discover all of it’s hidden gold nuggets. Until Senate story-time starts, however, you’ll have to start reading the bill on your own. Here’s it is..all 2074 pages. Get crackin’!

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