Leading U.S. senators on opposite sides of the healthcare debate are emphasizing different parts of a proposed bill to show that while health insurance coverage will expand and individual costs for healthcare will drop, overall spending by the federal government will grow.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat from Nevada, emphasized lower health care costs of individuals under the bill.

“The President’s Council of Economic Advisers has crunched the numbers, and this respected group tells us the bill before the Senate will indeed keep health care costs down,” he said, in prepared remarks to be delivered that afternoon on the Senate floor.

“Lower costs are good for every American. It means more people who don’t have insurance today will be able to afford it, and those who do have insurance will have more stability and security against losing it.

Meanwhile, opposing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, emphasized the federal government’s additional responsibilities, noting last Friday that “the Democrat bill increases National Spending.”

He cited a report from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which administers the nation’s public health insurance programs for seniors and the underprivileged.

“Americans were told that the purpose of health care reform was to lower costs, to bend the so-called cost curve down,” he said in a released statement. “But a report released last night by the administration’s own independent scorekeeper shows that the Democrat bill gets a failing grade.

Democratic leaders in the Senate and President Obama are pushing to pass the healthcare bill before Christmas.

Healthcare