Most Americans probably think a national health care bill is actually about national health care. Their national health care, paid for with their money—and their children's money, their grandchildren's money, their great grandchildren's money, and so on. They probably think two thousand pages of details are about what's in it for them.
Silly people. The reason this monstrosity is two thousand pages long is simple: it takes that many pages to codify the specific bribes paid to each Senator and House member in exchange for their support.
For example, the bill uses two pages outlining Medicaid subsidies for states declared "major disaster areas" in the last seven fiscal years. The only state to qualify? Louisiana. By sheer coincidence, Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu, whose support for the bill was reportedly tepid, gets a hundred million bucks to be "un-tepid." Another hundred million goes to Democrat Chris Dodd of Connecticut as the result of a provision included in 383 pages of changes to the Senate bill—which that chamber passed completely unread at one o'clock in the morning on Sunday.
Grifter Numero Uno, however, is Nebraska's Ben Nelson. Because the health care bill includes a huge expansion of Medicaid eligibility—the costs of which are shared by the states and the federal government—each state will eventually be forced to use an ever-increasing share of its individual budget to cover the costs. Make that 49 out of 50 states. Nebraska is now exempt and Ben "the Big Bribe" Nelson is on board.
For the sake of principle, no doubt.
G0d only knows what's in the rest of the bill. I mean that literally. Given the time frame between the writing of this bill and the vote scheduled for three days from now, it is impossible to believe even a single member of the Senate could read the entire thing. But why should any one of them bother? As long as each of these miscreants knows his or her "piece of the action" is covered, the rest is so much irrelevant verbiage. I believe Democratic House Rep. John Conyers put it best earlier this year:
"I love these members, they get up and say, 'read the bill.' What good is reading the bill if it's a thousand pages and you don't have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?
That was a thousand less pages ago, John. So I guess we're up to "four lawyers and four days," which dovetails quite nicely with Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's intention to hold a vote on this steaming hunk of junk on Christmas Eve, when most people—rightfully so—will be paying attention to celebrating the holiday.
Here's the biggest lump of coal you'll (hopefully) ever get for Christmas, my fellow Americans. And there will never be a more apropos use of the phrase the "gift that keeps on giving" than the one with which Congress intends to saddle a debt-ridden America—for generations to come.
Is it me, or have we reached a new paradigm in government corruption? No doubt we've sent our share of duplicitous hacks to Washington, D.C. over the years, but I can't remember a time when our representatives were so brazen with regards to their whorishness. It's one thing to be corrupt in secret. But to be so openly unconcerned with what the overwhelming majority of the public thinks—or wants—is truly disturbing.
Here's hoping Americans remember. Here's hoping next Christmas—the one following the 2010 election—will be one of the happiest in years.
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