Congress: Legislating or Bribing?

Unfortunately, health care reform issues continue to arise and there can be not avoiding discussing them any more. Today's post focuses on a fine piece of work by Washington Post writer Dana Milbank who posted an article on the Post's website on December 22, 2009 entitled "On Health-Care, Democratic Senators Are In States Of Denial." While many other reputable sources have reported on the following information, Mr. Milbank has done an excellent job on summarizing many of the "deals" that are hidden within the current health care reform bill in the Senate:

• Louisiana Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu got $100 million in extra Medicare money for her state of Louisiana.
• Nebraska Senator Democratic Ben Nelson also got an extra $100 million in extra Medicare money for Nebraska.
• Not to be outdone, Democratic Senator Chris Dodd got $100 million allocated to his home state in the bill for a new medical center ($100 million must be the standard state of currency In the Senate these days.)
• Democratic Bill Nelson of Florida got an exemption that would allow Florida to preserve an expensive Medicare option.
• Montana Senator Bill Baucus got additional Medicare coverage for anyone exposed to asbestos..... as long as they worked in a Libby, Montana mine.
• Democratic Senator Tom Harkin got additional Medicare money for his state of Iowa for low volume hospitals.
• Back to the Senator from Nebraska, he was able to get a provision that would reduce fees for insurers based in Nebraska.
• Both North Dakota Democratic Senators got higher Medicare payments for hospitals and doctors in "frontier states" - coincidentally, frontier states include North Dakota.
• Mr. Milbank goes on lists other special provisions that went to other Democratic states including Hawaii and Vermont.

Now, don't get me wrong, I truly believe that if the Republicans were in charge the same type of bribery would be taking place but it would be occurring in states with Republican Senators. What I do not understand is if this health care reform legislation is as important and life changing as it's supporters claim it is, why are we worried about such trivial, local issues such as coal miners in Montana? Shouldn't the political class be focused on debating and analyzing truly national issues on this nation-affecting legislation as opposed cutting deals for their own local interests?

No wonder the bill in the Senate is 2,000 pages long, it is not to reform health care in this country, it is to accommodate the bribes that Reid and others have inserted to get votes. I would have hoped that such important legislation itself could stand on its own and not need bribery to get approved. Sadly, that is not the case. Thus, it is difficult to believe anyone, including the President, when they state this is a good bill. It is a bill that only passed because of the bribes that were written into it. Since over 60% of Americans, as measured by most reputable opinion polls, view this bill as a bad deal and we now know how underhandedly the votes were gathered to pass this legislation, is there any doubt that this will be divisive national issue for the foreseeable future? Adding to this probablity of prolonged divsion in the country, is the potential for legal action raised by Republican Senator Hutchison of Texas, who makes a sane case that the process, the parochial bribes, and resulting bill is a violation of the Constitution from an equal protection under the law clause.

I leave you with two statements today. The first was listed in the "Comments" section or Mr. Milbank's article. The insightful reader basically said: "If you are pulled over for speeding in your car and offer the policeman $100, you are guilty of bribery. If you are sitting in the Senate and get offered $100 million dollars, you are guilty of "legislating."

And finally, Mr. Milbank quoted Senator Reid relative to this "legislating": "That's what legislating is all about. So this legislating is no different than the defense bill we just spent more than $600 billion one. It's no different than other pieces of legislation." Now remember, from a previous post we cited sources that estimated 1,700 instances of waste in that defense bill. Mr. Reid makes it apparent from his own words that he does not get it, he seems to think that wasting taxpayer money is okay regardless of where it is wasted. He calls it legislating, not waste. Seems like Orwell's Big Brother is alive and well in Washington. Given that the Senator sees no problem with waste, you can be sure that waste will continue until he and others are removed from office.

Visit our website at www.loathemygovernment.com to order an autographed copy of the book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government -Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom and Destroying The American Political Class" and to sign up for the cause. The book is also available online at Amazon and Barnes And Noble.

YQF3W74UXXEA
VPBHWM375EAD