One of the roadblocks in the way of the reconciliation rider to the Senate healthcare bill is that, in order to meet reconciliation rules, it has to decrease the budget deficit by at least $1 billion. According to the latest CBO score, that’s no problem:
The incremental effect of enacting the reconciliation proposal — assuming that H.R. 3590 had already been enacted — would be the difference between the estimate of the combined effect and the previous estimate for the Senate passed bill, H.R. 3590. That incremental effect is an estimated net reduction in federal deficits of $20 billion over the 2010-2019 period over and above the savings from enacting H.R. 3590 by itself.
Click the link for details. The reconciliation rider would also continue to reduce federal deficits in the decade after 2019, just like the main Senate bill. As far as I know, this is the last hurdle in the way of healthcare reform aside from, you know, actually voting on it. That should happen sometime this weekend.
