Pork greased reform's passage

[kpete]

Source: Politico

Pork greased reform's passage
By: Josh Gerstein
December 22, 2009 04:40 AM EST

The multimillion-dollar deals cut with Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and others to win the 60 votes needed for the historic health care reform bill gave President Barack Obama the margin he needed to fulfill a central campaign promise — but may also have upped the ante for future presidential horse trading.

With the bill hanging in the balance, Nelson won a provision exempting his state from paying the usual share of costs for new Medicaid patients. The deal critics have dubbed the Cornhusker Kickback is expected to cost the federal government $100 million over 10 years.

Before a close vote last month, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) won an even larger break for her state — an estimated $300 million in extra federal spending, in a move opponents derided as the Louisiana Purchase.

Some critics branded the special deals as functionally equivalent to the kind of earmarks Obama crusaded against as a senator — and a quantum leap from eleventh-hour deals Obama’s predecessors have cut.

Read more: http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=B3AA7A18-18FE-70B2-A8774C7AF4887B4B

[MilesColtrane]

1. AKA: Blue Dog Extortion

[Duke Newcombe]

2. In related news...science discovers water is wet, Sun is hot.

Unfortunately.