Conrad pessimistic on passing healthcare before recess

Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) sounded a pessimistic note today about whether Congress can pass a healthcare reform bill before the August recess, as President Obama has urged.

“All the stars would have to be in alignment to get it done in the next three week,” Conrad told MSNBC’s Andrew Mitchell.

Citing a recent report from the Congressional Budget Office, Conrad, a member of the Senate Finance Committee and the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, added that substantial changes must be made to the current proposals in order to bring down costs.

“We have not yet bent the cost curve in the right way,” he said, adding later that “we’ve got to do a better job than what’s been done so far.”

Conrad also pushed back against White House claims that the CBO estimates were incomplete. Acknowledging that he sometimes has his own disagreements with CBO scoring, Conrad argued that “at the end of the day, they’re the ones we have to rely on to keep us all on track.”