Word: baucus
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After months of anticipation and blown deadlines, Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus on Wednesday finally unveiled his bill to overhaul the nation's health-care system. The Montana Democrat did his best to sell the controversial proposal, stressing that it was largely in line with the principles laid out last week by President Barack Obama: it has a 10-year price tag of less than $900 billion, doesn't add to the deficit and includes a mechanism to ensure that those with pre-existing conditions can't be denied coverage. But Baucus' relentlessly positive spin couldn't change...
...Still, Senators shouldn't hold their breath that they will be radically changing the bill, at least in the formal markup expected in committee next week. It's unlikely that any amendments that change the basic framework will be accepted, Baucus told reporters before unveiling his bill. The Montana Democrat has not even given up on the hope of some Republican support. But despite his apparent confidence, Baucus may still need to work to win over enough wavering Democrats to get the bill through the Finance Committee. Here are their five biggest issues with the legislation and what Baucus...
...much does the bill cost, and will it add to the deficit? In a press release accompanying the release of the bill, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus says the legislation would cost $856 billion over 10 years and would not increase the deficit. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which put the bill's total cost at a lower $774 billion, says the bill would actually reduce the deficit by $49 billion between 2010 and 2019. (Watch an abridged version of President Obama's health-care speech before Congress...
...didn't take long the next day for the reality to set in that not much about the game had really changed. "Every day," Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, who is leading bipartisan talks, said with a sigh, "we get a little closer. And I mean it." (See 10 players in health-care reform...
...Problem is, he has meant it before - virtually every day for the past four months, he has reported he's "making progress." Baucus has pledged to send a bill to the Senate floor the week after next and has promised legislation for his colleagues to look at "within a day or two" of Sept. 15, the deadline set by Reid. But if anything, the President's speech gave the negotiators more, not less, to think about. The controversy over Republican Representative Joe Wilson's shouting "You lie!" at the President over his claim that illegal immigrants wouldn't benefit from...