The Forgotten Wisdom of Harry Truman
Harry Truman declared, “Never trade principles for votes.” Those who do are what George Washington described and rejected as “mere politicians.” The recent healthcare reform bill vote in the United States Senate has set a new low in Washington politics. The party of Truman chose to disregard their former leader’s counsel. To reach the required 60 vote total, the Senate majority dished out massive pork and individual favors to get the votes they needed. Some are calling it a modern version of the “Louisiana Purchase” and a “Corn Husker Kickback”. (See Human Events January 4, 2010 p. 1, 6, 10-11). The form of currency is unprecedented preferential treatment on a state by state basis to fund government Medicare and Medicaid payments back home and provide other requested earmarks and benefits.
The Abuse of Congressional “Earmarks” Reaches New Extreme in the Healthcare Reform Debate
The Senate version of the President’s desired healthcare reform is more than 2,000 pages long and filled with special favors. It represents a $400 billion tax increase and $2.5 trillion in spending over 10 years. Instead of the usual individual “earmarks” that make no sense (such as the famous “Bridge to Nowhere”), formulas have simply been changed and individualized to provide state by state favors as needed to gain the desired Bill passage. As one commentator has noted, “This is kind of the new frontier in pork-barrel politics.” (Id. p. 6).
The latest backroom arm-twisting and deal making came together on Christmas Eve. It was then passed on a party line vote. Among the Senate handouts are hundreds of millions of dollars in Medicaid payments to meet the demands of Democrat Senators in Louisiana and Nebraska. The Federal payments thrown into the Bill to appease Louisiana and Nebraska will cover the cost of Medicaid in their states. Other states will likely be forced to raise taxes to meet the new demands under the Senate’s proposed mandatory healthcare legislation.
Sample Results of Senate’s Unprincipled Vote Swapping
The list of vote swapping concessions handed out to the various Democrat Senators include: $100 million for a new hospital in Connecticut, a tax break for Mutual of Omaha Insurance Company based in Nebraska plus federal money for Acorn, the Illinois group that is under investigation for alleged phony voter registration lists. $10 billion for government healthcare centers and $600 million in Medicaid payments will go to Vermont. Florida seniors get to keep extra Medicare benefits that the elderly in other states will lose. There will be higher Medicare payments to hospitals in North Dakota and Medicare benefits are extended to a small group of mineworkers in Montana.
The Congressional Budget Office reports that the proposed healthcare Bill includes a mandatory annual fee of approximately $15,000.00 on families that earn more than $88,000.00 if they are not provided with health insurance by their employer. (Federal subsidies are available to those that make less than that amount if they buy a government approved plan in a government regulated insurance exchange). Employers will be fined $750 per worker if they do not provide insurance for them regardless whether the employer has the financial ability to satisfy the government mandated coverage. Families of four or more without employer based insurance will be faced with a federally mandated $15,000.00 per year insurance bill. (Members of Congress, of course, have guaranteed taxpayer funded insurance that far exceeds such minimum coverage). The vast number of self employed individuals and small businesses in our country are seemingly overlooked in all this or at least severely minimized in the government’s zeal to mandate and guarantee universal coverage.
Exploding Medicaid Budgets Threaten States’ Financial Stability
Some analysts warn that the new healthcare bill will create a Medicaid explosion that could bankrupt the states. (Id. p. 1, 10). Utah’s budget is heavily weighted in favor of education but still spends approximately 16.5% of its available funding on Medicaid. On average, most states spend as much as 20% of their state budget on Medicaid funding requirements. Ohio spends 39% and Massachusetts spends 27%. Under the last minute Senate deal, the less favored states must not only absorb all the new increased funding mandates imposed by Congress but also pick up the tab for Nebraska and any other state that received preferential treatment in exchange for the vote of their Senators.
The Current Healthcare Reform Debate Adversely Affects All Americans
One of the most glaring examples of how bad this type of political deal making has become is the fact that Congress has never before agreed to pay a state’s Medicaid bill in perpetuity as it did for Nebraska to get the 60th vote it needed. The local earmarks and “pork” spending concessions that go out each year may affect only isolated parts of the country but they are still fundamentally wrong in principle. This is even worse since these newly bartered back room deals affect all Americans. This is being done to advance a radical liberal agenda that will affect every single person in every state in the Union. Thus, 49 states must subsidize Nebraska, for example. Robert Moffat, healthcare analyst at the Heritage Foundation, has commented: “The sense of fair play and the sensibilities of ordinary Americans are deeply offended by all this.” Rightly so!
Posted by: LaVar Christensen