There's some very good news for public option advocates this afternoon, reported by TNR's Jonathon Cohn.
According to a pair of Capitol Hill sources, preliminary estimates from the Congressional Budget Office suggest that a strong public option--the kind that the House of Representatives is putting in its reform bill--should net somewhere in the neighborhood of $150 billion in savings over ten years.
The sources cautioned that these were only the preliminary estimates, based on previous discussions--that CBO had not yet issued final scoring on language in the actual bill. But the sources felt the final estimate would likely be close....
At a time when finding the $1 trillion it will take to finance coverage expansions remains the major challenge of reform, the discovery of $150 billion in potential savings is an important--and encouraging--piece of news.
That news could somewhat soften the blow of tax increases that will be included in teh upcoming House bill.
House Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) said Friday afternoon that the House's health care bill would be unveiled Monday and would include a $540 billion tax increase on people making more than $350,000 a year.
The tax increase, which would take effect in 2011, would hit the wealthiest Americans, Rangel said. Rates would become progressively
higher, with those making at least $500,000 paying one rate and those bringing in $1 million or more paying the highest rate. He said the
surtax would be "a very small percentage --- 1, 2, 3, something like that," but did not disclose the precise numbers.
According to that Roll Call article, Rangel rejected a proposal to "trigger" the tax increases, and had discussions with Blue Dogs "regional disparities and other issues."
And there's Senate news about scheduling, as well.
Conrad said while members of both parties are making substantial progress, Democrats probably won’t get the bill through the full Senate before Congress’s month-long August recess, as they hoped.
“We can get it out of the Finance Committee,” Conrad, of North Dakota, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” to air this weekend. “I don’t think we’ll be through the floor during this work period. I think that’s too big a lift, but that really isn’t that important.”
Conrad could be blowing smoke, as the Committee is still tied up over whether or not there should be a tax on benerfits, something that a significant chunk of the Democratic caucus is still opposed to, but that Conrad will continue to push. At least he didn't wax on eloquently about the value of bipartisanship in this interview with Bloomberg's Al Hunt.
Which is good, given the performance we've seen from Republicans today. First, there's Roy Blunt's desire for the elderly and poor just to get sick and die already. But Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA), unbelievably tops Blunt.
Rep. Broun: "...and that's exactly what's going on in Canada and Great Britain today. They don't have the appreciation of life, as we do in our society, evidently. And, um. Dr. Roe, a lot of people are gonna die, this program of 'government option' is being touted as being this panacea, the savior of allowing people to have quality health care at an affordable price- is gonna kill people."
Ah, bipartisanship. Yup, these guys really need to have a seat at the negotiating table.