Baucus Healthcare Bill

The Baucus Healthcare Bill passed the Senate Finance Committee today, with help from one Republican, Olympia Snowe of Maine.

The AP describes the Baucus Bill as "middle-of-the-road" legislation. Here is one quick summary of the negatives contained in this Bill:

It costs $829 billion in only six and one half years; it levies half a trillion in new taxes, penalties, and fees, all of which will be passed along to consumers; it contains the largest expansion ever of the fiscally troubled Medicaid program; it suffocates the popular Medicare Advantage program; and its so called “consumer protections” would so roil the nation’s health-insurance market that the cost of our health coverage (according to the Price Waterhouse analysis) would increase by thousands of dollars per year.

If this is the AP's idea of middle-of-the-road, then I see a multi-car pileup in the opposing lane in its future.