The Louisiana Purchase: Was Senator Landrieu Bribed to Vote For Cloture?
With an additional $100 million in suddenly-allocated federal funding to her home state, it sure looks like it. And Landrieu (D-LA) isn’t the only one getting kickbacks…
Senator Lincoln (D-AR) got bonus time to study the legislation. Senator Nelson (D-NE) convinced Reid to strip the antitrust-exemption removal provision from the bill, and Senator Wyden (D-OR) was assured by Reid to expand health-insurance availability.
Now, make no mistake, these kinds of dealings are far from uncommon in national politics, on either side of the aisle, and to be quite frank, just aren’t shocking any longer. However, you would think that if the consensus on healthcare reform was as “unprecedented” as the Obama Administration, and Congressional liberal Democrats claim, there wouldn’t be the need to wrangle in centrist Democrats with pork bribes, and legislative language-stripping.
In a way though, this is promising. Reid knows that the legislature in it’s current language is hanging on tenterhooks. Republicans have displayed a unanimous vote of opposition, as have a considerable amount of wild cards, and moderate Democrats. Combine that with the fact that public opinion on the reform has hit an all-time low, with barely two-fifths of the country onboard, Reid knows very well that time is not on his side. Because the more of this bill John and Jane Q. Taxpayer see, the less they seem to like it.
Which seems to be a common theme over the course of the last year or so. Americans loved the flowing rhetoric, and hopeful promises that the Obama administration and Congressional Democrats campaigned so heavily on…
...until the buck stopped, the bill rolled in, and they realized what they stood to lose.
Senator Lincoln (D-AR) got bonus time to study the legislation. Senator Nelson (D-NE) convinced Reid to strip the antitrust-exemption removal provision from the bill, and Senator Wyden (D-OR) was assured by Reid to expand health-insurance availability.
Now, make no mistake, these kinds of dealings are far from uncommon in national politics, on either side of the aisle, and to be quite frank, just aren’t shocking any longer. However, you would think that if the consensus on healthcare reform was as “unprecedented” as the Obama Administration, and Congressional liberal Democrats claim, there wouldn’t be the need to wrangle in centrist Democrats with pork bribes, and legislative language-stripping.
In a way though, this is promising. Reid knows that the legislature in it’s current language is hanging on tenterhooks. Republicans have displayed a unanimous vote of opposition, as have a considerable amount of wild cards, and moderate Democrats. Combine that with the fact that public opinion on the reform has hit an all-time low, with barely two-fifths of the country onboard, Reid knows very well that time is not on his side. Because the more of this bill John and Jane Q. Taxpayer see, the less they seem to like it.
Which seems to be a common theme over the course of the last year or so. Americans loved the flowing rhetoric, and hopeful promises that the Obama administration and Congressional Democrats campaigned so heavily on…
...until the buck stopped, the bill rolled in, and they realized what they stood to lose.
