Obama's christmas gift - Health Care reform gets through the Senate

President Obama got his Christmas gift a little early as the Senate voted through the health care legislation in it's third and final procedural 'test run'

- Republican senators sought to frame the bill as a tarnished product of backroom deals, with some going so far as to declare it illegal. Despite strong opposition in the Senate and from a large part of the American citizens - Democrats were able to scrape together the 60 votes needed to "win" the vote, while not a single Republican supported the bill.
With final approval of the bill all but certain, Republicans on Wednesday focused on diminishing it in the eyes of the public. In particular, GOP senators questioned a deal struck by Sen. Ben Nelson (Nebraska) - who agreed to support the legislation in part because a provision was added exempting his state from paying part of the cost of expanding the Medicaid program. 

It seems to be a never ending circle of lies and pay-offs that keep this country in the pit that it has fallen into as Senators are nothing more than a price tag to the Insurance lobbyists and drug companies. All they really have to do to get exactly what they want is pony up the cash and the vote is theirs.

Those who are looking at this bill with any realistic point of view can clearly see that this is not the case, it simply is not possible to mandate more spending on health care (or anything for that matter) and not spend more money. How the president is able to fathom the concept of spend more to save money - is beyond me. In fact the current bill even provides special provisions for some states; Nebraska in particular, is to be completely excluded from paying their fair share of the cost, which is estimated by some to be nearly $1 TRILLION over the next several years.

The South Carolina state attorney general stated that he plans to investigate whether the "Nebraska compromise" was unconstitutional. He estimates the deal struck with Sen. Nelson is estimated to cost the federal government an additional $100 million over 10 years.

David B. Rivkin, a conservative lawyer and constitutional expert in Washington, said he believed the claim of illegality was valid. Rivkin cited Article I of the Constitution, which says Congress can only use its power to tax and spend to benefit "the general welfare."

"This is the antithesis of the general welfare. It's about the welfare of one particular state,"
"This is worse than an earmark. This is money to buy the vote of one senator. It's not the way to use public funds." - David B. Rivkin

The proposed bill as it stands also includes a regulation to mandate that every citizen pay for health coverage whether they want it or not. At the same time the insurance won't be provided by Medicare, Medicaid or the U.S. government at all - but still private insurers; which to me - seems to point the finger once again, that someone - somewhere got a HUGE payoff for this bill.

Senators have also removed the possibility of importing cheaper prescription drugs from Canada which would have saved us billions - anyone have a guess why that was tossed out? Could it have anything to do with - the millions of dollars that greedy American drug makers shell out in 'donations' to our senators to buy their votes?

The urgency with which this bill has been crammed through the senate is astounding and is due entirely to President Obama's commitment to save face before his next election campaign begins. He is unwilling to approach the situation with any strategy or plan of action but at the same time is dead set on not giving up a fight (even if to just gather a better plan) and that has now set us further behind then we already were.

Comments anyone?

Feel free to email me at tango17@gmail.com or follow me on twitter @Darkn3ss87

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