Blue-Dogs hard to find after health care bill hit

Blue-Dogs hard to find after health care bill hit

For all the trouble it caused Democratic leaders over the health care reform bill, the House Democratic Blue Dog Coalition was surprisingly silent when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi finally dropped the 2,000-page, $1.05 trillion legislation.

The 51 Blue Dog members sent a letter late Thursday to Congressional Budget Office Director Doug Elmendorf, asking for him to say whether the bill would reduce the long-term costs of health care to the federal government. But the normally noisy group was hard to find after Pelosi’s bill hit.

The CBO estimates the cost of the legislation to be $1.05 trillion, up from the $894 billion price tag House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., had announced. The CBO also found that the bill would cut the deficit by more than $100 billion over 10 years through $740 billion in new taxes and a net $426 billion in cuts, mostly to the Medicare program for seniors.

When Pelosi announced the legislation, there was no Blue Dog press statement or news conference complaining of the bill’s staggering cost, tax increases or establishment of a huge government entitlement plan. And the members of the group that famously stalled the bill before the August recess who could be found said the legislation would likely pass the House.

Washington Examiner
11/1/9

h/t Majority in Miss., who said:

The last time we heard Rep. Travis Childers talking about the proposed healthcare legislation was a week ago when he said he didn’t want a bill that added to the deficit. Then earlier this week Nancy Pelosi released what we’ve all been waiting for scared of. The bill totals 1990 pages at a cost of $2.2 million per page (or $1.055 trillion for those of you scoring at home). And as we all know, the government never spends more than they say they are going to…

Rep. Gregg Harper was the first member of the delegation to speak up- and speak out- about this bill. At the same time, we have yet to hear any reaction from Childers- a man facing a very tough re-election challenge in almost exactly one year.