Another CBO Score

Early indications are the CBO is about to release its score of the Senate bill with fixes. Unofficially, CBO has the bill at $940 billion for ten years. In addition;

• Reduces the deficit by $130 billion over first ten years
• Reduces the deficit by $1.2 trillion over the next ten years
• Provides 32 million Americans with health care coverage
• Reduces annual growth in Medicare expenditures by 1.4 percentage points per year, extending Medicare's solvency by at least 9 years

Not bad if I do say so myself. Still cheaper than Iraq, spends American money on Americans, tremendously reduces the deficit and eases some pain on Medicare. I still would love a public option, or opening up Medicare to everyone. But at this point I would settle for a warm glass of shut the hell up.

*Update:

I've read in a number of different places this morning the very predictable, routine reaction from Republicans about the latest CBO score. As we all know, they are complaining the deficit reduction in the bill isn't enough. This is total psychosis by Republicans.

This bill alone would be the largest deficit reducing bill in history. It's more than anyone has ever done. In stark contrast, the only health care related legislative victory the GOP can claim credit for is the huge prescription drug expansion to Medicare that doesn't even begin to offset costs or reduce the deficit. It simply adds half a trillion dollars to the deficit without ever producing a dollar to pay for it. Really, though, Republicans have never done anything to reduce the deficit. What they do have a track record of is taking the largest surplus in history and turning it into the largest deficit in history. Listening to them complain now about not doing enough to reduce the deficit they created is retarded. Lending them any credence to the claim of fiscal responsibility takes a general act of stupidity coincided with an aversion to reality.