The Boston Herald Editorial Staff
If anyone other than Senate majority leader Harry Reid had cut the kind of deals he did to pass the health care bill hed soon be on his way to prison. But when the Democratic leader has to buy votes - with our tax dollars - well its all part of the game. That the game" had to be played out in the middle of the night as the rest of Washington was snow-bound tells us everything we need to know about the political desperation to get something passed and the fear that sooner or later American voters will catch on to the scam.
To cobble together the 60 votes needed to ram this bill through Reid had to cut deals that will cost us all.
Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) was the critical 60th vote and it sure paid off for his home state. Well pay for 100 percent of Nebraskas Medicaid expansion - forever.
Medicare reimbursement rates will be cut everywhere except they will increase in states where at least 50 percent of the counties are frontier counties" (defined as having a population density of less than six people per square mile).
Montana (home of Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus) North and South Dakota Utah and Wyoming fit that description.
And a certain unnamed health care facility" (possibly one in Scranton Pa.) will get a $100 million appropriation.
Shameful? No kidding.
And the bargaining has hardly begun. After all the Senate bill - passed on Christmas Eve - will have to be reconciled with the House bill.
So many payoffs so little time.
