Hmmm!

Remember that all important Baucus health care financing reform bill that was supposed to be the be all, end all of legislative superlatives, yeah well, according to the Congressional Budget Office--there is no Baucus Bill. It doesn't exist. Like all the legislation in this arena, it is a figment of the imagination, a list of concepts, talking points and ideas. As William Jacobson notes:

Before everyone gets too deeply into their thoughts, please keep in mind the following (get ready, all CAPS, bold, indented signifies a really important concept):

THERE IS NO BAUCUS BILL.

The CBO scored the concepts described by the Baucus Committee. There is no legislative text. None. Baucus and his Democratic colleagues refused to reduce their concepts to actual legislation prior to a vote. Here is the CBO's disclaimer:

CBO and JCT’s analysis is preliminary in large part because the Chairman’s mark, as amended, has not yet been embodied in legislative language.

.The Baucus Concepts are disasterous, but that's for another post. For this post, let me get across a simple concept: THERE IS NO BAUCUS BILL.

But, I would expect that little hiccup to get in the way of passing the health care non-bill. The Senate seems prepared to simply pass health care financing reform in a budget reconciliation anyway, so why would the lack of language get in the way.