March 19, 2010

Dem healthcare reform fix leaked

Now is the time to make this known;
Democrats are planning to introduce legislation later this spring that would permanently repeal annual Medicare cuts to doctors, but are warning lawmakers not to talk about it for fear that it will complicate their push to pass comprehensive health reform. The plans undercut the party's message that reform lowers the deficit, according to a memo obtained by POLITICO.

Democrats removed the so-called doc fix from the reform legislation last year because its $371-billion price tag would have made it impossible for Democrats to claim that their bill reduces the deficit. Republicans have argued for months that by stripping the doc fix from the bill, Democrats were playing a shell game.
It proves that Nancy Pelosi's happiness with the Congressional Budget Office numbers goes well beyond hypocrisy, it's deceitful.


Questions:

Does this leak mean the CBO scores the whole bill over again with this new information added? If so, 72 hours needs to start over after they are done, right? If not, just how exactly does the CBO add value?

Will the mainstream media hop on this report? Never mind, we know the answer to that question already.

UPDATE: What's needed now is a bit of SLOWmentum.  given that some no's flipped to yes, word has to get out on this or as top Democrats are saying, they're feeling confident. Slow it down and let the phoniness of the CBO results (through no fault of the CBO, but rather poor input from legislators) sink in among the public and representatives.  Otherwise they might coast across the finish line.

"We'll have the votes when the roll is called," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters Friday. The Democrats top vote-counter, Rep. James Clyburn, concurred. "I feel very sure that we'll vote on this some time Sunday, and the bill will pass," Clyburn said. 
Adding another spark to an already dramatic weekend session, the White House announced that Obama will come to the Capitol at 4 p.m. on Saturday to meet with Democrats in an attempt to close the deal.
And Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave her strongest comments of the week on Friday, saying "I'm very excited about the momentum building around this bill. We're one day closer to passing this legislation."
Democrats keep getting boosts with fresh “yes” votes from wavering Democrats – the latest coming from Rep. John Boccieri of Ohio, who is flipping from “no” to “yes.”
Clyburn said Thursday’s release of a final price-tag on the bill – showing that it would reduce deficits for the next 20 years – is helping to pull wavering members over to supporting the bill. 

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