Preliminary Analysis of the Senate Finance Committee Chairman's Mark As Amended  —  CBO and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) have just issued a preliminary analysis of the Senate Finance Committee Chairman's mark for the America's Healthy Future Act of 2009 …

Bob Dole outs naysayer Mitch McConnell  —  Bob Dole supports health care reform.  —  “This is one of the most important measures members of Congress will vote on in their lifetimes,” the former Republican Senate majority leader and presidential candidate told an audience in Kansas City today.

Dems Discussing Public Option With Opt-Out Clause: The Silver Bullet?  —  WHAT'S YOUR REACTION?  —  Senate Democrats have begun discussions on a compromise approach to health care reform that would establish a robust, national public option for insurance coverage but give individual states the right to opt out of the program.

Meet the New Health-Care System, Not That Different From the Old Health-Care System  —  You probably can't see that table particularly well.  Click on it, and it'll enlarge.  It comes from one of the final pages of the Congressional Budget Office's score (pdf) of the Senate Finance Committee's bill …

CBO: New Baucus Deficit Neutral Bill Costs $829B, Will Reduce Deficit By $81 Billion Over Next Decade  —  The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the new version of the Senate Finance Committee's health bill “will result in a net reduction in federal budget deficits of $81 billion over the 2010-2019 period.”

Dole: Health care reform coming late this year or next; “you lost” when Clinton-era reform failed  —  Former Kansas Sen. Bob Dole says “there will be a signing ceremony” for a health care reform bill either late this year or early next.  —  But the former presidential candidate says he isn't sure what the bill will say.

Reid ‘Likely’ to Make Entire Health Bill an Amendment to Unrelated Tax Bill That House Passed in March  —  (CNSNews.com) — A senior aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told CNSNews.com that it is “likely” that Reid will use H.R. 1586—a bill passed by the House in March to impose …

Baucuscare: Score!  —  So, the CBO report is out, and my estimate of the contents is totally wrong.  WonkRoom has a pretty good summary:  —  Old CBO Score Of Baucus Bill  —  New CBO Score Of Baucus Bill  —  Costs  —  Reduce deficits: $49B/10yrs  —  Net Cost: $500B/10yrs  —  Gross cost: $774B/10yrs

CBO: Baucus bill costs $829 billion, reduces deficit by $81 billion  —  The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issued a cost estimate of the healthcare reform bill under consideration by the Senate Finance Committee, concluding it would increase federal spending by $829 billion over 10 years …

CBO's Latest Projections Out.  Reason for Relief?  And Concern?  —  CBO is out with its rough estimates of the Senate Finance bill as it looks now, following the amendments made during the recent markup hearings.  Here's my initial take, informed loosely by a few conversations with experts and insiders:

A Bold and Modern White House  —  The Obamas' taste in art is as broad as abstract canvases by Josef Albers, American Indian scenes by George Catlin and paintings by little-known figures like Alma Thomas, the African-American Expressionist painter.  Works by those artists were among …