You would think that Henry Waxman, Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would know better. After Senate Democrats revealed a Health Bill that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated would cost well over a trillion dollars, House Democrats have ventured into the same stratosphere of astronomical costs for government run health care.
Via Politico:
“The Congressional Budget Office threw up a barrier almost as soon as the bill was introduced Tuesday, estimating its cost at more than $1 trillion.
(snip)
…the estimate was still a blow; Democrats were desperately hoping to avoid the T-word.”
What the CBO did not account for was the additional $540 Billion surtax that they want to hit the wealthy with. That would, in the minds of Democrats, bring the cost down, but would in turn be a huge tax increase that could see tax bills rise anywhere from 1.5% to 5.4% and higher if the savings the Democrats anticipated did not materialize.
Meanwhile Senate Democrats are balking at the idea of a surtax.
“I don’t think it is going to go anywhere in the Senate,” said Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), a Finance Committee member. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), another member of the committee, likewise said he hadn’t “heard a lot of support in the Senate for the surtax.”
Additionally Senate Finance Chairman Kent Conrad “…told reporters that it’s “hard to see” how the Senate can move on Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s Supreme Court nomination and health care reform before the recess.”
With little to no support from Republicans in either chamber, especially in regards to a surtax, it’s hard to see government run health care passing before recess. And with some GOP Senators, most notably Senators John McCain and Tom Coburn, calling on Senate Democrats (and their staffs?) to give up their Federal benefits and enrolling in the public option, the fight against government backed Obamacare is far from over.
