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HOW WASHINGTON WORKS: Still Enough ‘Pork’ In Heath Care Bill To Cost Taxpayers Billions (The Washington Post)
Skipping through the Candy Land of the health-care bill, one is tempted to hum a few bars of “Let Me Call You Sweetheart.”
What a deal. For dealmakers, that is. Not so much for American taxpayers, who have been misled into thinking that the sweetheart deals have been excised.
Not only are the deals still there, but they’re bigger and worser, as the Bard gave us permission to say. And the health-care “reform” bill is, consequently, more expensive by billions.
Yes, gone (sort of) is the so-called Cornhusker kickback, extended to Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson when his 60th vote needed a bit of coaxing. Meaning, Nelson is no longer special. Instead, everyone is. All states now will get their own Cornhusker kickbacks. And everything is beautiful in its own way.
Originally, Nelson had secured 100 percent federal funding for Nebraska’s Medicaid expansion — in perpetuity — among other hidden prizes to benefit locally based insurance companies. When other states complained about the unfair treatment, President Obama and Congress “fixed” it by increasing the federal share of Medicaid to all states through 2017, after which all amounts are supposed to decrease.
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Kathleen Parker – Health-care reform’s sickeningly sweet deals – washingtonpost.com.
