Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has been trading options and numbers with the CBO for weeks now, and they’re reportedly nearly done. A final analysis on a complete package could be available as early as tomorrow. If that happens, it will be yet another big day for Senate Democrats as they struggle to reach consensus over landmark health care reform legislation.
Once it’s unveiled, and the bill meets daylight, it will be crunch time for conservative Democrats–most notably Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu, and Blanche Lincoln–who have been withholding their commitment to supply the bill much-needed procedural votes until they’ve had a chance to see it and hear from CBO.
Reid has been working hand in glove with CBO, so it would be a major surprise if the bill he unveils isn’t projected to require $900 billion in new spending or less, and doesn’t lower the deficit in both the near or long term. Meeting those guidelines has become a sine qua non of reform.
The Associated Press reported today that Reid is considering a small increase in the Medicare payroll tax for income over $250,000–either a sign that he’s scaling back the controversial excise tax on small businesses, or that the bill has become somewhat more expensive in the merging process, and he needs more revenue, or both.
Reid has insisted for weeks that the bill will include a public option (with an opt-out clause for states), despite pressure from some in his own caucus to strip it out, and it’s expected to remain in the bill, though Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) has been working on a version of the triggered public option, suggesting he isn’t confident Reid will have the 60-votes to either move the bill to the floor for debate, or bring it to an up or down vote.
