***Congressional Menu for 2010? Pork… Pork… and Yes… More Pork!

A little more than a year ago, the American voters elected a new President on the basis of “change”. One of the major issues was the alleged end to special interests, lobbyists and “back-room” dirty dealing. “Not in my White House”, as I seem to recall. Well, America, one look at the Senate Healthcare Reform bill will tell you that not only has there been no change in the business as usual… it’s gotten worse than ever. In order to sway the votes of a few Senatorial holdouts among the 60 who were expected to go along just look at how much “fat” was added to this bill. Remember… this money is going to come from you, me, our kids and grandkids. Here is some “post-change” pork:

*$100 Million to the University of Connecticut buys Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn).
*$100 Million exemption to Nebraska Medicaid contributions, dubbed the “Cornhusker Kickback” buys Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE).
*$300 Million in additional federal spending coined the “Louisiana Purchase” buys Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA).
*A promise to increase Medicare payments to certain “low-volume hospitals” in Grinnell, Keokuk and Spirit Lake, Indiana buys Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), chairman of the Senate health committee.
*As a result of promised “Frontier Freebies”, payments to hospitals and doctors in ‘frontier counties,’ having low population densities, Senators from North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Utah and Wyoming will submit their “Yes” votes in support of the bill.

There’s more pork to be revealed but I just get a column… not the whole newspaper! You don’t have to be a Republican or a Democrat to see what’s wrong here. Your tax dollars are being used as “bribes” to get a bad piece of legislation shoved down your throat. Yes, our healthcare system needs real repair. It took over 50 years to deteriorate to the mess it’s now in, but that should serve as a big red flag in the face of anyone who believes our “UP FOR SALE” Congress has fixed it with three months of pork-barreling! It’s our money, our healthcare, our country and no one in our nation’s capital is accountable for any of it… Democrat or Republican!

In addition to all the payoff money being floated around Washington buying votes for a rush-to-pass-it, the bill calls for Medicare spending cuts of over $400 billion dollars… from a program that is on the edge of collapse as it is. The cuts will show up on the books as the way the payoff money got “balanced out”. American politicians using Chinese accounting to play Russian roulette with our healthcare system. It’s time they were all fired and replaced with people who are willing to sail in the same boat with the rest of us. Whatever plan Congress gives us, they should be the first ones enrolled, and when Congress votes themselves a pay-raise, like they did last year, the Social Security benefits should be raised by the same percentage before the politicians see a nickel of their new salary. It’s time to demand more and better performance from our leaders.

Tags: federal spending, healthcare reform, medicare payments, senate health committee