The U.S. Senate is near agreement on a broad bipartisan plan to revamp the costly healthcare system, and legislation is very likely to pass, a leading senator said on Monday.

Democratic Senator Max Baucus said the powerful Senate Finance Committee he chairs would propose legislation this week, estimating there was an "85 to 90 percent" chance meaningful healthcare reform would be passed in the Senate with bipartisan support.

...

... 46 million people are uninsured and have little access to care.

Amazing how that figure keeps popping up: "46 million." Is it either/or or both/and? what does "little access" mean? Oh well. No time to chat! We are off and running, Global-Climate-Change-Wise, on another quick-fix-it scheme:

Extending healthcare to cover them could cost more than $1 trillion over the next decade,

That sounds like "serious money," but there's a light at the end of the federal-expenditure tunnel:

...but Baucus said more than half of that cost could be clawed back in the form of savings. The rest would have to come from raising revenues.

"I'm hoping to get more from savings than from revenues," he said, sitting in his office.

Mind you, up to 1 trillion dollars over a decade is only... hmm... let's see... 100,000,000,000 dollars a year. A hundred-thousand millions of dollars.

Where's a fellow to turn for reassurance? A congressman's hope! Let's say, 600 billion are recouped in savings just to be as analytical as the typical congressional analysis. (I just made that number up. See? It's analytical!) That leaves 400 billion in — er — "revenue" to get back to the "up to a trillion" figure. Or about 40-thousand millions a year.

I am not happy that the Powersthatbe are spending money now like drunken members of the Bush Administration.

Fascinating. I'm wagering (with my own money, evidently) that Senator Baucus' legislation, as vague and nebulous as it stands, will run over 1500 pages. Any takers?

The only thing worse than an administration accumulating federal power at the expense of the citizenry is an administration running a "hurry up" offense to achieve those ends.

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To what do we owe the production of multiple entries in one day? In this case, to Dell Product Support, which has occupied... um... 5 hours of my time so far today! And counting! Can you imagine how happy I'll be to have the Federal government involved in my healthcare! Those of you who have dealt with the IRS over the phone will know about what I am talking!