Max Baucus: “This is a jobs bill. This is a safety net extenders bill. This is not a health care bill. Four Senators just spoke--I…”

“This is a jobs bill. This is a safety net extenders bill. This is not a health care bill. Four Senators just spoke--I think there were four; six of them altogether--basically being very critical of the health care reform bill we passed in the Senate, very critical of the President's effort to pass health care reform. I think some of the misstatements made deserve a response. The Senator from Mississippi called the Senate health care bill a massive tax increase. The Senator is simply mistaken. That is not correct. The health care reform legislation is, in fact, a major tax cut. It is not a tax increase but a major tax cut. The Senate passed a health care bill that provided more than $400 billion in tax cuts for Americans to buy health insurance--$400 billion in tax cuts. Those were tax credits given to Americans to buy health insurance. That sounds like a tax cut to me. This is the largest tax cut for individuals since the record tax cuts of 2001.”