Billionaire financier Warren Buffett, who is believed to have the president’s ear, told CNBC this weekend that if he were President Obama, he would scrap the current health-care bill and zero in on “cost, cost, cost” in a bill that could gain broad bipartisan support, instead of “dream[ing] up 2,000 pages of other things.”

Buffett said that expanding coverage should take a back seat to controlling costs. “I believe in insuring more people, but I don’t believe in insuring more people until you address. . . the cost aspect of this,” he said.