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November 19, 2009 at 07:00 PM
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) unveiled November 18 Senate Democrats’ version of healthcare reform, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects would cost $849 billion over 10 years and cut the deficit by $130 billion over the next decade.
In releasing the legislation, Reid said that “as the President asked us to do, we will not add a dime to the deficit–quite the opposite, in fact: We will cut it by $130 billion in the first 10 years and by as much as three-quarters of a trillion dollars in the first 20.” This will be done, he said, “by keeping costs down. This critical reform will cost less than $85 billion a year over the next decade – well under President Obama’s goal.”
Senate Republicans oppose the bill. Congressional Quarterly reported November 19 that Reid “needs all 60 of his members to vote for cloture Saturday [November 21] and, if that passes, to vote Sunday [November 22] on a motion to proceed to the bill”–that is, consideration of the bill by the full Senate.
