I hope she doesn’t, but it doesn’t look good. Maybe Blanche Lincoln will save us all.
Word. What we really need is single payer for the whole shootin’ match.
Let us pray otherwise!
How dare she vote for a bill that has $100 million in it to help the people who elected her to office! Has she no shame?
It’s pretty much an outright bribe.
Is this really uncommon? I don’t agree with it but I’m fairly certain it is a common practice on both sides of the aisle. I do wonder if it is constitutional and, if not, what can be done about it.
I dunno about unconstitutional, but it IS corrupt government.
You’re calling Medicaire funding for states hit by Katrina a “bribe?” Are you fucking serious?
What do you call it when insurance companies give Republicans money, hookers and blow to vote against HCR?
Regardless of what the money is for this is clearly a bribe for her vote. My understanding is that the language makes only LA eligible for the money. You know that this could have been handled in a separate bill if the senate really just wanted to give money to LA for Katrina.
Why should Medicare funding tied to Katrina??? And the bill was specifically written to only benefit one state, LA.
What is it when insurance companies pay Senators to vote against HCR?
What Landrieu is getting is not for herself, but for Katrina victims. It’s also absolutely SOP in Congress to horsetrade locally favorable funding for votes. Pretending to be outraged about this is outright laughable.
Because they need it.
So? Do you think there’s anything new about this?
For your next thread, why don’t you blow the lid off the rampant gambling going on in casinos.
Calling this change in the bill a “bribe” makes it sound as though it originated with the sponsors of the bill. On the contrary, AFAICT from the article, Landrieu sought the change on her own initiative:
Not according the article you cited: it claims that the Medicaid funding also applies to other states hit by Katrina. I don’t dispute that the lion’s share of the funding may well go to Louisiana, but let’s try not to be gratuitously inaccurate about the details.
Uh, yes, the fact that people bribe other people with handouts and pork and bad riders in order to get an unrelated bill passed is one of the biggest structural flaws in our governmental system. Robbing the public treasury to try to get your constituents more of a share than anyone else’s constituents is not noble.
No argument there, but it’s also nothing out of the ordinary. Politicians at all points on the political spectrum make these kinds of deals all the time.
Which is why it seems rather, shall we say, arbitrary to highlight this kind of deal-making as a lamentable betrayal of political conscience on this one particular vote, considering that it’s such a commonplace feature of legislative politics in general.
Clearly, what’s chapping Carol Stream’s hide about Landrieu’s actions in this specific instance is not that Landrieu pushed for some changes to this bill that would favor her constituents, but rather that Landrieu is considering voting in a way that Carol Stream doesn’t want her to vote.
We’ve all seen deals so disgusting they would make a cockroach puke its guts out. If this woman has to be bribed to help people by helping people, well, Lord knows I’ve seen worse.
My guess is she’s covering the bases, if she gets shit for her vote, she can say she sacrificed her otherwise invincible principles (that’s invincible…not invisible!) for the people of Louisiana!
And so it goes…
The vote she’s “selling” isn’t for the Senate health care bill, it’s just for whether they should start the debate about the Senate health care bill. If that passes, then they’ll argue for weeks, hash out amendments, and, at some point, actually call for a vote on the bill.
Oh, look! Carol Stream, a known and vocal conservative, wants to screw poor people again! Whoda thunk?
Well, she just did it, live on CSPAN2. And she helpfully pointed out that it’s not a $100M giveaway, it’s actually $300M. :rolleyes:
Ah well, she’s not up for re-election until 2014, so she can take a chance with this vote.
Not so for Mrs. Lincoln, who’s up in less than a year. We’ll see…
This is just politics. I hope this is not new to you. That is why so many bills get long. They are horse traders, trying to maximize their power. She is like the last homeowner who refuses to sell to a huge developer. Her value is maximized.