Healthcare in the Senate

Senator Mary Landrieu' s (D-LA) vote was vital to get to the debate stage of the legislative process for the Senator Harry Reid health-care bill moving through the Senate. So vital that two pages were added to the bill that would steer $200 - $250 MILLION dollars in Medicaid funds to her home state of Louisiana in fiscal year 2011. As a result, tonight the senate will vote on moving the bill to debate and it will pass. We should not underestimate the resolve of the Democratic party to pass their health-care initiative before the mid-term elections in 2010. They are going to use every trick in the book and they will promise anybody anything to get it done. The reason they want it now. When the mid-term elections are complete, the Democrats won't have the numbers they have now and their chance at passing a health-care bill will be dead. There is even a chance that Harry Reid himself will be on the outside looking in after 2010. If it costs $200M to get the bill to debate, you can imagine what concessions will be made should be get to the actual vote on the bill itself. One of the things being espoused in this bill is it will actually reduce the federal budget. What you're not being told is how it achieves that end which is not guaranteed. To achieve this savings and not actually increase the federal deficit, Congress will have to reduce Medicare/Medicaid and other federal expenditures by $420B. It's important to note that no congress has ever done this before. Additionally, they will have to pass an excise tax on that will be levied on the best health insurance policies. You read that right. Those who have the very best health insurance policies in this country will actually have to pay a tax on having health insurance. We should note here that even if Congress does pass this excise tax, it is something the President Obama has not endorsed or favored in the past. America is being told they are going to have better health-care and a reduced federal deficit. That's just not going to happen and anyone who believes it will is either not paying attention or is just plain stupid.