Senator Harry Reid's Hide and Seek ObamaCare Bill

On Saturday, I reported that all 40 Republican Senators signed a letter demanding to see the health care bill Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) claimed he sent to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Yesterday, Reid circulated a Dear Colleague letter in response – thanks to Christina Bellantoni of TMPDC for publishing the letter. Reid claimed in the letter that he does not have a bill, notwithstanding the fact he had a press conference a week ago to announce a deal.

Last Monday, Roll Call reported that “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is expected to announce on Monday afternoon that negotiations on the Senate’s final health care reform bill have concluded and that he is sending the measure to the Congressional Budget Office, according to Democratic sources.” At the press conference, Reid said “today’s development, my sending of, in the next few hours, to CBO a – number of – anyways the proposal we are sending them for their scoring will make us a step closer to achieving a bill this year.” Specifically, Reid asserted that he is going to include a public option with an opt out provision in the bill, then at the 1:24 mark of the video linked above said that the public option would be “included in the bill we submitted, that will be submitted to the Senate.” Sounds like Reid announced a deal on a bill, yet in the letter Reid backed away and stated that his bill “does not exist.”

News reporters and TPMDC also seemed to get the impression that the announcement by Reid last Monday was more than a press availability to discuss the progress on Obamacare:

• AP – “Reid says he has blended two versions in a measure that includes a government-run ‘public option’ to compete with private health insurance plans.” Reid now says that he is “now working” to “meld them together into a single bill.”
• NYT – “Mr. Reid has now submitted several components of the developing Senate health care bill to the Congressional Budget Office for cost analysis. It will likely take several days for the nonpartisan budget office to provide results, and only after that will Mr. Reid decide whether it’s time to push for the first vote.” It has been over week and Reid now claims that “no final decisions have been made.”
• TMPDC – “In the next several hours, Reid will send the CBO a draft bill with alternative provisions on certain issues, to get a range of cost estimates on the plan he’ll bring to the floor.” Reid now claims that “there is no bill to release publicly.”

Reid wrote “as you also know, we are now working to take these publicly-available provisions (two committee passed Obamacare bills) and meld them together into a single bill. Apart from my decision to include a public option from which states may opt out, no final decisions have been made – and none can be made until we get more information about how CBO would score different combinations. In other words, there is no bill to release publicly – it does not exist.” Is this a commitment from Senator Reid that he will not add any new language to the bill? Reid’s announced version of the public option with the states having the power to op out of the program was not in either of the bills that passed Senate committees, yet he seems to have made a commitment to stick to the parameters of two Senate committees. He also had seemed to announce a deal last Monday, so we need to take Senator Reid’s assertions with a grain of salt.

The games Senator Ried has played with this Obamacare bill is a high risk game of Hide and Seek. Reid may have a bill written and read to go, yet he continues to hide the details of his bill from the American people. It is too bad Senator Reid is not willing to publish the actual legislation online so the American people can read the bill.