Dr

But, Maine does have lots of nice trees

How can you give away a $1 trillion new entitlement and argue with a straight face that it won't involve new costs?

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), on the  AHIP report: prepared  by Pricewaterhouse Coopers. "It wasn't based on any valid assumptions." “ Many Democrats have unanswered questions about the bill that was passed by the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday on a 14 to 9 vote: How can you give away a $1 trillion new entitlement and argue with a straight face that it won't involve new costs? How could the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) score it accurately last week ($829 billion over 10 years) when it's merely a phantom bill with no legislative language in it yet? How can they vote for a bill that hasn't factored in the cost increases that will occur when businesses offload their insurance responsibilities by throwing their employees into the ranks of the uninsured, paying the new fines instead of continuing to provide insurance? Even if you take the CBO's numbers at face value, what about the exponential costs that will explode in the second 10 years? What about the approximately 25 million people left uninsured by the bill? Won't we still have to pay for their medical care if they walk into a hospital emergency room? How will the legislators sell a bill to voters that includes significant tax increases on the middle class (in the form of stiff penalties for non-coverage, higher premiums, and on medical devices like wheelchairs and new mothers' breast pumps) while the "benefits" don't kick in for three years? And how about reading the bill before voting on it? [Supermajority fight club] ”