More on the tasty sausages our esteemed Senate is making

It is the only major piece of social policy legislation in American history that has no bipartisan support, and no popular support. Even the hard Left hates it. The Senate bill was crafted in secret, behind closed doors, where it remains. It required defacto bribes of two Democrats in exchange for their votes. Only a handful in the Senate have read it, but 60 vote for it.

And yet, this corrupt piece of legislation, jammed down the throats of Americans who don’t want it, may well become the law of the land by January. Amazing.

Hail Pyrrhus. – J.D. Mullane

Oh, and thanks to Daniel Foster over at Doctor! Doctor!, here are the purchase prices of the yes votes of 20 whores senators on “health care reform.”  Folks, this is my money and your money, casually tossed about as bargaining chips in a massive boondoggle to take over one seventh of the United States economy, with a bill no one has read.  Got me?  OK:

Sen. Ben Nelson (D., Neb.):

• $1.2 billion over ten years for a permanent exemption from Nebraska’s share of the Medicaid expansion. The only state so exempted under the bill.
• Exemption for Nebraska from an excise tax on non-profit insurers.

Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich.), Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D., Mich.)

• Exemption from the non-profit excise tax for Michigan insurers. Michigan and Nebraska were the only two states so exempted.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), Sen. Patrick Leahy (D., Vt.)

• $10 billion for “community health centers”.
• Protections from cuts to Medicare Advantage beneficiaries in Vermont.
• $250 million over six years in expanded federal Medicaid funding.

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D., La.)

• $300 million increase in Medicaid funding in Louisiana.

Sen. John Kerry (D., Mass.), Sen. Paul Kirk (D., Mass).

• Three years of expanded federal Medicaid funding.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D., N.Y.), Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.), Sen. Arlen Specter (D., Pa.), Sen. Bill Nelson (D., Fla.)

• Special treatment for Medicare Advantage beneficiaries in New York, Pennsylvania, and Florida.

Sen. Daniel Inouye (D., Hawaii), Sen. Daniel Akaka (D., Hawaii)

• Billions in new funding for something called “Disproportionate Share Hospital” (DSH) payments (financed, in large part, by $18.5 billion in cuts to DSH payments in other states).

Sen. Max Baucus (D., Mont.), Sen. Jon Tester (D., Mont.), Sen. Kent Conrad (D., N.D.), Sen. Byron Dorgan (D., N.D.), Sen. Tim Johnson (D., S.D.)

• Higher federal Medicare reimbursement rates for low-population “frontier” states (also qualifying under the bill’s definition of frontier states are Utah and Wyoming, represented in the Senate by Republicans).

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