This is a Cato Special Podcast. I'm Caleb Brown.

One problem with the health care bill passed by the house this weekend is that we don't yet have a full picture of what it will cost.

Never mind the individual mandates, employer mandates,

guaranteed issue new taxes on current insurance

and a government-run health insurance plan.

Michael Cannon, Director of Health Policy Studies at the Cato Institute,

comments.

There are a number of things that are impressive about the House vote.

One of them is that Speaker Pelosi managed to get a majority of the House to vote for a piece of legislation that a majority of the House does not support.

There are moderate Democrats who

who said they do not support this bill but they're voting for it just to keep the process moving.

There are pro-choice Democrats who object to the abortion language in this bill if it were a question of final passage. And if you change that abortion

language, then there are pro-life Democrats who will not vote for this bill.

Certainly at least three on each side and so and that was the margin of victory.

So there no matter how they slice and dice this bill,

they do not have majority support in the House of Representatives for this bill.

So it was impressive that Speaker Pelosi was able to get a majority

to vote for it.

It was also impressive that Speaker Pelosi

was able to hold a vote on this bill

before the American people even had an estimate of its total cost.

And I think that was deliberate.

...