Pass the Bill

Congressional Democrats say the final version of their comprehensive health-care plan -- set to be unveiled Thursday and likely to be voted on Sunday -- would cut the federal deficit by $138 billion over the next decade and $1.2 trillion 10 years after that.

The legislation would cost an estimated $940 billion over 10 years and deliver on the White House's top domestic priority: providing insurance to more than 30 million people who currently lack it. The bill would expand insurance coverage through a combination of tax credits for middle-class households and an expansion of the Medicaid program for low-income people.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters the legislation is "the largest deficit-reduction bill that members will have a chance to vote on" in most of their congressional careers -- a key enticement for a bloc of undecided Democratic lawmakers who fear that the legislation would run up the mounting federal deficit. The savings estimates came from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.