Snowe Lends No Hints of Support for Health Bill

There’s a great deal of focus on Sen. Olympia Snowe this week as the Finance Committee inches its way closer to a vote on health reform legislation, but the Maine Republican gave no clues in this morning’s opening statement about whether she’ll support the proposal.

Instead, Snowe used her initial five minutes to voice concerns about the potentially changing costs of the bill as the actual legislative language is drafted from the current conceptual language. The Congressional Budget Office last week estimated that the bill would reduce federal deficits by $81 billion over the next decade.

“If there are significant departures,” Snowe warned, “obviously that could drive up the price.”

Snowe is the only upper-chamber Republican who’s shown a bit of willingness to support the legislation, and Democrats have been courting her in order to lend at least a tinge of bipartisanship to the legislation. We’ll know later today if they’ve succeeded.