Gift Giving Continues - More Reid Bribes For Health Care Votes Come To Light

Even though yesterday's post was supposed to cover the major special deals/bribes that Senator Reid doled out in order to buy the Senate votes he needed to pass this horrible health care reform bill, a day later more details of Reid's deal making have come to light (as reported in an online Wall Street journal article today):

• A Florida Democratic Senator got a special $3.5 billion grant for that state's Medicare Advantage program, other states did not get a comparable grant.
• A Vermont Independent Senator, who usually votes with the Democrats, got $600 million in additional money for his state's Medicare program, most other states did not get a comparable increase in Medicare money.
• A Massachusetts Senator got $500 million in additional money for his state's Medicare program, most other states did not get a comparable increase in Medicare money. Looks like the Vermont Senator is a better negotiator though. He got 20% more money for a state with a considerably smaller population.
• Democratic Senators in Nebraska and Michigan were able to get together so that the Blue Cross/Blue Shield companies in their states got exemptions from paying an insurance tax, other states did not get the same exemptions for their Blue Cross/Blue Shield companies.
• Longshoremen get an exemption from paying a 40% excise tax on their so-called "Cadillac" health insurance programs, other Americans with Cadillac programs did not get the tax exemption.

It really does get sickening after a while. This is not health care reform. It is outright bribery and blackmail:

• The current Senate bill does nothing to fundamentally reduce costs.
• The current Senate health bill does not have any significant tort reform, tort reform that has significantly reduced health care costs in several states. Lack of tort reform indicates the strength of the lawyer/ABA lobbyists with Democratic lawmakers.
• The current health care bill does not address the serious amount of waste and fraud (billions of dollars a year) in the current system (more on this in the coming days).
• The current health care bill produces a significant reduction in freedom for most young Americans, forcing millions of them to sign up for health care policies that most do not need, given their better than average health. All this health care plan does is steal wealth from young Americans and use it to insure other Americans without reducing the underlying industry cost problems.
• While the insurance industry now cannot deny coverage to people, they will get rich on the estimated additional 30 million new people forced to buy health care insurance. The bill does not decrease costs.
• And finally, there is a serious mistreatment of the majority of Americans with small, special interest groups getting special monetary treatment in order for their Senators to vote to approve the bill. Hopefully, someone can put together a class action suit under the Constitution's equal protection clause for those of us that do not live in those states (Montana, Vermont, Massachusetts and others) and those job categories (coal miners in Montana and longshoremen) but who now have to subsidize these special cases.

This is not democracy or acting for the good of the country. This is insanity.

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.

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In the next few days we will review what some smart people, who have actually read the bill, have to say about its components and likely impact on every American's life. Happy holidays!