Yesterday evening, Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D-NV) released the Senate's version of a health reform bill, the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act". A cost analysis from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) puts the price tag of the bill at $848 billion over 10 years while expanding coverage to an additional 31 million Americans and is expected to reduce projected federal budget deficits by $130 billion over a decade.
Now, Senator Reid is faced with the task of moving the bill to debate on the full Senate floor through a procedural move called a "motion to proceed", which is expected to happen on Saturday. This motion, along with passage of the bill itself, requires 60 votes. Senators Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and Bernard Sanders (I-VT) are two Independents who caucus with the Democrats, but have not yet confirmed their support of the bill. If Lieberman and Sanders do not vote for the bill, Democrats will fall short of the required 60 votes by 2.
Full articles on the bill are available by clicking on the following links:
The full bill text can be found by clicking here. And, a searchable version of the bill, courtesy of the New York Times, is available here.
A talking points look at the Joint Committee on Taxation's revenue analysis can be accesses by clicking here.
The CBO score is available here.
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