Oh, goody. The House has a brand new health-care bill that they say is ever so much better than the old bill they said it was urgent to pass before the August recess. But they still won’t let us see it. Wonder why.
Speaker Pelosi says the Congressional Budget Office is giving it good marks for costing less than the previous must-pass bill. But we aren’t allowed to see the CBO’s estimates on it either. James Capretta of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, who’s done a great job of covering the health-care debate, explains:
Democrats are trying to build momentum again toward passage by creating the impression they have found a painless way to turn their budget-busting bill from July into one that actually cuts the deficit. It’s CBO’s job to make sure no one gets away with this kind of phony free-lunch argument. If in fact a new version of the House bill reduces the federal budget deficit over two decades, someone is paying. Who? Here’s betting that’s it’s the American middle class. And as soon as that becomes known, the new updated House bill is likely to become just as unpopular as the now dead and buried old one.