The Heritage Foundation is questioning the latest Congressional Budget Office estimates concerning the Senate version of healthcare reform, labeling the report "a devastating revelation."
According to latest estimates, the Senate version -- authored by Max Baucus (D-Montana) -- will cost a little over $800 billion over a ten-year period and even shave a little off the federal deficit. But policy analyst Dennis Smith with The Heritage Foundation is skeptical of the claims. "They don't count Medicare spending," Smith points out. "Everyone in Washington, including the chairman, has said he wants to fix the Medicare physician fee schedule -- that is not done. So that would have cost $200 billion -- that was put off. "They have not counted additional spending under the State Children Health Insurance Program [S-CHIP], so they haven't funded that." He expects the Senate will try to railroad the bill with very little input from the public. "We've suspected for sometime the majority leader [Harry Reid] would be looking for an avenue to simply attach this to another bill that can already be taken up," says Smith. The Constitution requires that all revenue raising measures must originate in the House, so Smith believes Senator Harry Reid (D-Nevada) will try to attach the healthcare bill to a pending piece of legislation that has already passed in the House (H.R. 1586).
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