Give senators a lump of coal
It would be preferable to have a spirited, uplifting Christmas Eve editorial today, but we have the United States Senate to deal with instead.
Today, Senate Democrats are on the brink of signing off on a legislative monstrosity that is claimed to bring “reform” to the nation’s health-care system, but will instead bring a vastly expensive federal entitlement that will expand government through a variety of frontloaded taxes and a raft of provisions that many think will lead to higher health-care costs.
And all of it coming with a final vote on Christmas Eve, a move fully intended to rush the legislation through with as little scrutiny as possible.
One thing we’re sure of: This is a gift that will keep on giving. It is full of surprises that will pop up in the months to come. Many questions will be raised, and the public will rightly wonder why these questions weren’t asked and more importantly answered by the Senate, supposedly the greatest deliberative body in the world.
Instead, we are getting a legislative Christmas tree decorated with treats unlike any seen before. Sen. Mary Landrieu got a $300 million earmark that is now known as the Louisiana Purchase. Sen. Christopher Dodd got $100 million for a hospital in Connecticut. Sen. Bill Nelson got a special provision to allow 800,000 seniors in Florida to keep Medicare Advantage benefits. Sens. Byron Dorgan and Kent Conrad got a special provision ensuring that North Dakota hospitals and doctors will get higher Medicare payments compared to other states. Sen. Ben Nelson got a guarantee that Nebraska will get reimbursed for future expansion of the state’s Medicaid program to the tune of $100 million over the next 10 years.
And our own Sen. Max Baucus got a provision allowing for asbestos victims in Libby to qualify for Medicare.
In most cases, these earmarks are what it cost to win the votes of the respective senators, with the dealmaking done behind closed doors in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s office. There has always been horse-trading in Congress, often resulting in earmarks, but it has never been on this scale.
Make no mistake, this bill and the bureaucracy it will create will cost a huge amount of money.
What remains to be seen is the disparate impacts of a bill that obviously has different protections and benefits for different states. What kind of increased costs will states incur? Who will be hurt the most? Will it be seniors, young people, doctors, or families with certain incomes?
The only hope that remains for stopping the legislation is that the House cannot accept the Senate’s bill, or vice versa, and the whole thing gets tangled up in the conference process in January. That is our only hope that 2010 will indeed be a happy new year.