Freedom Line Blog

Unfortunately for taxpayers, patients and health care professionals, the Senate successfully invoked cloture on its health care plan last Saturday.  With only 60 votes needed to proceed to consideration of the bill, Harry Reid got his 60 votes.

Since few Senators likely read the entire 2,074-page piece of legislation, here’s a quick breakdown, courtesy of Senator Coburn, of what was in the bill.

• 8 – new taxes created in the bill.

• 70 – government programs created in the bill.

• 3,607 – uses of the word “shall.”

• 24 million – patients left without health care.

• $494 billion – in new tax hikes.

• $2.5 trillion – total cost of the legislation.