The newspapers are full of stories about how the CBO score of the Finance committee health reform bill is good news and good momentum for Baucus. The CBO says the Finance bill (post mark up) will reduce the deficit by $81 billion over the next decade and expand health coverage to 94 percent of nonelderly Americans, at a cost of $829 billion over 10 years.

Democrats rejoiced, reports The New York Times,

The much-anticipated cost analysis showed the bill meeting President Obama's main requirements, including his demand that health legislation not add "one dime to the deficit." Indeed, the budget office said, the bill would reduce deficits by a total of $81 billion in the decade starting next year.

The report clears the way for the Finance Committee chairman, Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, to push for a panel vote within the next few days, and sets the stage for Democrats to take legislation to the floor for debate by the full Senate this month.

Moderate Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe said the CBO mattered, and she was adamant about getting a solid score before the final Finance committee vote. The Washington Post wrote,

Passage by the Democrat-dominated panel is virtually assured, but Democrats are eager to win the vote of Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (Maine), the only Republican on the committee who has expressed any support for the measure.

Snowe said Wednesday that she was relieved to see that the cost of expanding coverage remained below Obama's limit of $900 billion over the next decade. "But we have a lot to review," she said.

Politico reports Baucus "scored big" with the CBO estimate,

The estimate is also a big boost personally for Baucus, who faced sustained criticism from his party's liberals for taking months to craft a moderate bill without a national government insurance plan or a requirement that employers must provide insurance.

But Baucus always argued that the middle-of-the-road Finance Committee bill was the one bill with the best chance of passage in Congress -- and now he's got a favorable price tag to back that up.