GOP leaders note CBO correction in bill opposition

Senate Republican leaders leaned on a corrected CBO score and "sweetheart deals" Sunday to reiterate their opposition to the 2,700-page healthcare bill "monstrosity" in the run-up to the early morning cloture vote on the measure.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) also said he and other lawmakers were wading through the 383-page manager's amendment introduced by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Saturday, which was read aloud by the clerk at the request of McConnell.

The amendment contains new compromise language, with many of the provisions targeted to satisfy the demands of individual senators.

But McConnell singled out the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) correction of its estimate of the Senate health bill's costs, sent in a letter to leaders Sunday, as "another reason why we shouldn't be trying to jam through legislation this rapidly."

McConnell also criticized the "smelly proposition" of deals like that struck between Democratic leaders and Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.).

Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) stressed that he was born in Nebraska, and said he suspected Nebraskans weren't asking for the Medicaid extension when expressing displeasure with the bill to their senator.

"If you have that kind of leverage you should have used it to fix the bill," Kyl said.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who lashed out at Nelson on Saturday for agreeing to compromise language on abortion coverage under the healthcare bill, said that the deals being struck would create acrimony between the states and were "dividing up the country based on parochial preferences."

"That's the only way we can come to a consensus in this country is to buy votes," Coburn said.

And though Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said on "Fox News Sunday" that Republicans would "probably not" be able to stop passage of the healthcare bill by Christmas Eve, McConnell concluded the afternoon press conference by vowing, "This is not over by any stretch."