Committe to vote on health bill Tuesday!

Washington: The Senate's top Democrat on Thursday accused Republicans of strategy of "distortion, distractions and deception" on health care as he announced a pivotal committee will vote next week on a comprehensive bill.

Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the Finance Committee will vote Tuesday on a 10- year, $829 billion proposal that would expand coverage to 94 percent of eligible Americans while reducing the federal deficit. A positive cost report on the legislation Wednesday from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office marked a turning point for its main author, Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont.
After announcing plans for the vote, Reid said Republican have no health plan to offer and are only trying to obstruct. "Just as Democrats believe in ensuring quality, affordable care for every American citizen, we believe equally as strongly that this country has no place for those who wish for it or its leaders to fail," he said.
Senate Republican Leader Mich McConnell of Kentucky dismissed the news on costs and coverage as "irrelevant," saying Democrats would pump up the Baucus bill as it proceeds through Congress.
"What matters is that the final bill will cost about $1 trillion, vastly expand the role of government in people's health care decisions and limit choice, " he said.
In the House, Democrats cut $84 billion from their proposed health care surtax on high-income Americans, Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., said Thursday.
He said the new tax proposal would apply to people earning at least $500,000 and would raise $460 billion over the next decade. The Democrats earlier tax proposal would have raised $544 billion.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, said she is considering adding a windfall profits tax on health insurance companies to he House Democratic bill.