Republicans Assail Cornhusker Kickback Deals In Health Debate
Nelson provided the 60th vote that Senate Democrats needed to get the health bill past three procedural hurdles the Republicans set up to try to block the bill. Later today, the Senate will conduct the last test vote to clear the measure for final passage tomorrow.
On and off the Senate floor, Republicans attacked an agreement Nelson made to exempt his state from paying its share of a plan to expand the Medicaid insurance program for low- income Americans. They accused Democrats of corrupting the Senate by making deals that benefit individual states.
Democrats were “playing The Price is Right, by offering sweetheart deals” to Nelson and other lawmakers to get their votes, Texas Republican John Cornyn told reporters yesterday. “The rest of us have to pay the price for these additional sweeteners.”
Cornyn said Texas would have to pay $21 billion over the next 10 years. “Of course, the folks in Nebraska and other places — Louisiana and others — will not feel that same burden,” he said.
Republicans called a deal to exempt Nebraska from paying its share of expanding Medicaid the “Cornhusker Kickback,” referring to the states nickname.
Louisiana Purchase
They termed an agreement to give Louisiana an extra $300 million in federal assistance for Medicaid the “Louisiana Purchase” for helping secure the support of the states Democratic senator, Mary Landrieu.
Wyoming Senator John Barrasso said he wouldnt be “part of what has been called corruption” in the Senate.
Nelson took the floor to denounce attacks on the deal he struck, telling Republicans “you can twist and you can turn and you can try to distort what happens, but it doesnt change the underlying fact.”
He said he had sought a provision that would have allowed any state to opt out of the plan to broaden Medicaid eligibility. To reach a deal with Senate Democratic leaders, Nelson said he accepted making his own state exempt from paying its share of the cost of the proposal.
Under the bills provisions, the federal government would pay for the entire Medicaid extension from 2014 to 2017. Thereafter, states would pay as much as 10 percent of the additional cost of the greater eligibility.
“Its not a special deal for Nebraska, it is an opportunity to get rid of an under-funded mandate to all the states,” Nelson said. “Weve drawn a line in the sand and said this is unacceptable” for all states, Nelson said.
He told reporters that other senators are seeking similar exemptions for their states. Such changes could only come in a House-Senate negotiation to reconcile competing versions of the legislation.
In floor debate, Arizona Senator John McCain complained about a special provision that offers Medicare coverage to any resident of Libby, Montana, the site of an open-pit mine for vermiculite, a cancer-causing mineral used for insulation.
Montana Democrat Max Baucus, a chief architect of the health-care legislation, angrily cut off McCain when the Arizona lawmaker accused him of “jamming it” into the health-care legislation without proper budget authorization.
Baucus said his Republican colleague “doesnt want to deal in good faith.”
Pretty Sleazy Process
South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham complained in a Dec. 21 interview on Fox News that the Senate debate had “turned into a pretty sleazy process.”