Well, that was rude.
I’ve been watching the Senate Finance Committee all week to see how they ruled on a number of issues. They didn’t like the two clear public options. They did pass Senator Cantwell’s sorta maybe public option (albeit barely). All week, though, I’ve been waiting to see what would happen to the Wyden Amendment.
You remember that one? I devoted a pretty long post to it, in fact. It had bipartisan support and might satisfy a number of competition/consumer choice cries. The CBO even said it was cost-saving. So how did it fare?
There wasn’t even a vote! Per Ezra Klein:
Instead, Max Baucus ruled it out of order. The reason? It didn’t have a full CBO score. This came as a surprise to Wyden and his team, who’d gotten the amendment scored by the CBO, and had been in endless negotiations with Baucus, the White House, employers, and labor over the past week. If the score was in fact partial, as Baucus claimed, you’d think someone might have mentioned it.
That’s… hard to swallow. Read Ezra on his thoughts on why this happened; I don’t like to speculate on such matters. But once again, we seem to have rejected a piece of legislation that might have lowered the cost. Remember that the next time someone complains about the size of the deficit.
I still think they are going to pass a bill eventually. But it’s going to be expensive.
