Tax News

CCH (cch.taxgroup.com) reports:

  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's, D-Nev., plan to pass a sweeping $848-billion health care reform bill before Christmas suffered a serious setback over the weekend as several key lawmakers voiced their objections to recent changes in the bill and threatened to withhold their support for the measure. Independent Joseph I. Lieberman, I-Conn., who has already stated that he would not support a bill that contains a public option, said on December 13 that he opposes the latest compromise proposal that expands Medicare eligibility to people between the ages of 55 and 64.

  Speaking on CBS's "Face the Nation," Lieberman said he would have "a hard time" voting for a bill that contains a Medicare buy-in. "We've got to stop adding to the bill," he said. "We've got to start subtracting some controversial things."

  Lieberman said the proposal contains many of the same ills as the public option: mainly, that it would end up costing the U.S. taxpayer. "It has some of the same infirmities that the public option did," he said. "It will add taxpayer costs."

  In a joint appearance with Lieberman, moderate Ben Nelson, D-Neb., who also opposes the public option, said he, too, has problems with the Medicare buy-in plan. "I am concerned that it's the forerunner of single payor, the ultimate single-payor plan, maybe, even more directly than the public option," he said.

  Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., joined the chorus of lawmakers who hold reservations about the price tag of Reid's latest gambit to secure 60 votes for passage of his health care reform measure. She said on "Fox News Sunday" that she would not vote for the bill if the proposal would lead to an increase in health care spending. "I have to be assured that this is going to bring down the deficit and it's going to bring down health care costs," said McCaskill.

  Reid is expecting within days a cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) of the compromise agreement, which he hopes will allay concerns that the Medicare expansion would add to the cost of the plan.

  By Jeff Carlson, CCH News Staff