Do you remember the “Cornhusker Kickback” for Nebraska and the so-called “Louisiana Purchase”? Those were sweetheart deals in Congress meant to ensure that Democrat lawmakers in those states would back ObamaCare legislation.
Public outrage temporarily persuaded Democrats to remove the kickbacks, but now the special deals are back with a vengeance. As ObamaCare has struggled to gain the bare-majority, Democrat-only support it needs to pass, the president has let it be known that Congress is welcome to stuff the bill with state-specific “benefits” — at the expense of taxpayers in most of the other states. The administration says that sort of special treatment is OK so long as at least two states benefit.
So, for example, Vermont would get an extra $600 million to pay ObamaCare’s higher Medicaid costs — and Massachusetts would get $600 million, too! Of course, that’s not much help to people living in other states, including Tennessee, where Democrat Gov. Phil Bredesen has predicted massive, unfunded cost increases under ObamaCare.
Congressional Democrats are open about the fact that they’re using all this spending — of current tax revenue and future borrowed money — to get the votes they need to impose trillion-dollar-plus ObamaCare on the nation: “We’re going to do what we have to do to get a bill out of the House and Senate,” a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told The Associated Press.
“Obama has railed against the ‘ugly process’ of cutting special deals, but the president and his top advisers were prime players in negotiations on the agreements to win votes and push the legislation forward,” the AP added.