There is no Baucus bill

The CBO has come out with this 27-page document on the Baucus bill, i.e., the Senate Finance Committee Health Care Bill. However, there’s one, and only one, important thing, which they themselves tell you in the CBO’s Director’s Blog:

CBO and JCT’s analysis is preliminary in large part because the Chairman’s mark, as amended, has not yet been embodied in legislative language.

In plain English, what does that mean?

It means this:
THERE IS NO BAUCUS BILL

Say, what?

Have a lawyer tell you:

The CBO scored the concepts described by the Baucus Committee. There is no legislative text. None. Baucus and his Democratic colleagues refused to reduce their concepts to actual legislation prior to a vote. Here is the CBO’s disclaimer:

CBO and JCT’s analysis is preliminary in large part because the Chairman’s mark, as amended, has not yet been embodied in legislative language.

The Baucus Concepts are disastrous, but that’s for another post. For this post, let me get across a simple concept: THERE IS NO BAUCUS BILL.

Your esteemed Senators on the Senate Finance Committee will not be voting on legislation because THERE IS NO BAUCUS BILL.

Your esteemed Senators have so little respect for you that some of them are willing to vote in favor of legislation which does not exist because THERE IS NO BAUCUS BILL.

The actual legislation will be drafted in secret by Harry Reid and a few other people, including staffers whose names and political connections you never will know, and the resulting legislation will be rammed through the Senate and House before anyone gets to read and analyze it.

Sen. Lamar Alexander recognizes the fact, too:

“This is an estimate of a concept, not a formal cost analysis of an actual bill. What we know at this point is that the bill cuts Medicare, raises taxes, and increases insurance premiums for tens of millions of Americans. It imposes onerous new costs on states and is likely to increase the federal debt. We need to see the actual bill text and know its exact text before we begin a lengthy debate about whether it’s the right direction for our country.”

Thing is, there isn’t any.

So, we’re being told that the bill on the Emperor’s New Clothes is going to reduce the deficit, only that the Emperor will still be naked.

And we’ll be the ones paying for it.

The CBO covered itself in shame this time.

And about that other 1,000-page bill (the Senate HELP Committe Bill) knocking around: