The Washington Post reported on a provision in the health reform bill that would give the state of Louisiana - whose Senator, Mary Landrieu, is indecisive on health reform - $300 million. "The promise of the Obama campaign is to change the way Washington works," CNN's John King asks Sen. Sherrod Brown. King argues that this process is "Washington as usual, is it not?" Brown and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen were tongue-tied as to how to answer the question at first.
King continued, "Is it important enough to buy votes?"
Health bill helps wavering Louisiana senator WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has included at least $100 million in Medicaid funds for Louisiana in his health care bill at the same time he is trying to persuade that state's wavering Democratic senator to cast a pivotal vote for the overhaul legislation.
Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., is among a handful of senators who have not said what they will do when Reid holds a showdown vote on beginning debate on the legislation Saturday night. Landrieu said in an interview Thursday that the extra Medicaid assistance is "one of the things that's important" to her decision but won't determine her vote on the $848 billion, 10-year revamping of the nation's health care system.
Landrieu also said earlier Thursday she had not decided what she would do, but added, "I want to get to the debate. I am not trying to derail this bill."
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the provision would cost the federal government $100 million. Landrieu, though, said she believed it would provide her state with $300 million and said even that amount would not be all the funds Louisiana needs.
Reid, D-Nev., will need 60 votes to overcome procedural hurdles by Republicans and begin considering the bill, a prime priority for President Barack Obama. The Senate has 58 Democrats and two Democratic-leaning independents, and all Republicans are expected to vote "no."
Landrieu has said she wants health legislation that drives down medical costs and helps families and small businesses afford coverage. She has also expressed general opposition to establishing a government-run health insurance program, as Reid's bill would do, but she has left the door open for compromise.
In the interview, Landrieu said the extra money for Medicaid, the federal-state health care program for the poor, was "something that I asked for and I'm happy to say we're making progress on it."
The money in the bill is for 2011. Louisiana is already receiving extra Medicaid funds for 2010 under this year's economic stimulus program.
The section of the 2,074-page bill that provides the aid does not mention Louisiana by name. Instead, it describes several conditions - such as all of its counties or parishes qualifying for federal assistance - that apparently apply only to Louisiana, according to a Landrieu aide who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Louisiana's federal assistance for the program was cut after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina drove up average income in the state because of government aid and high-paying reconstruction jobs. The federal share of Medicaid aid is higher for states with lower average incomes.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/19/AR2009111903053.html Sweeteners for the South On the eve of Saturday's showdown in the Senate over health-care reform, Democratic leaders still hadn't secured the support of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), one of the 60 votes needed to keep the legislation alive. The wavering lawmaker was offered a sweetener: at least $100 million in extra federal money for her home state.
And so it came to pass that Landrieu walked onto the Senate floor midafternoon Saturday to announce her aye vote -- and to trumpet the financial "fix" she had arranged for Louisiana. "I am not going to be defensive," she declared. "And it's not a $100 million fix. It's a $300 million fix."
It was an awkward moment (not least because her figure is 20 times the original Louisiana Purchase price). But it was fairly representative of a Senate debate that seems to be scripted in the Southern Gothic style. The plot was gripping -- the bill survived Saturday's procedural test without a single vote to spare -- and it brought out the rank partisanship, the self-absorption and all the other pathologies of modern politics. If that wasn't enough of a Tennessee Williams story line, the debate even had, playing the lead role, a Southerner named Blanche with a flair for the dramatic.
After Landrieu threw in her support (she asserted that the extra Medicaid funds were "not the reason" for her vote), the lone holdout in the 60-member Democratic caucus was Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas. Like other Democratic moderates who knew a single vote could kill the bill, she took a streetcar named Opportunism, transferred to one called Wavering and made off with concessions of her own. Indeed, the all-Saturday debate, which ended with an 8 p.m. vote, occurred only because Democratic leaders had yielded to her request for more time.
Even when she finally announced her support, at 2:30 in the afternoon, Lincoln made clear that she still planned to hold out for many more concessions in the debate that will consume the next month. "My decision to vote on the motion to proceed is not my last, nor only, chance to have an impact on health-care reform," she announced.
Landrieu and Lincoln got the attention because they were the last to decide, but the Senate really has 100 Blanche DuBoises, a full house of characters inclined toward the narcissistic. The health-care debate was worse than most. With all 40 Republicans in lockstep opposition, all 60 members of the Democratic caucus had to vote yes -- and that gave each one an opportunity to extract concessions from Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) won a promise from Reid to support his plan to expand eligibility for health insurance. Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) got Reid to jettison a provision stripping health insurers of their antitrust exemption. Landrieu got the concessions for her money. And Lincoln won an extended, 72-hour period to study legislation.
And the big shakedown is yet to occur: That will happen when Reid comes back to his caucus in a few weeks to round up 60 votes for the final passage of the health bill.
Republicans also knew that a single defection would kill the bill, so they tried to pressure the holdouts. "That's what we've got to choose today: Do we choose life or do we choose death?" declared Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.). "We just need one vote, one vote on the other side."
But Landrieu had already made up her mind. She went to the floor during the lunch hour to say that she would vote to proceed with the debate -- but that she'd be looking for much bigger concessions before she gives her blessing to a final version of the bill.
"My vote today," she said in a soft Southern accent that masked the hard politics at play, "should in no way be construed by the supporters of this current framework as an indication of how I might vote as this debate comes to an end." Among the concessions she'll seek: more tax credits for small business and a removal of the version of the "public option" now in the bill.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/21/AR2009112102272.html
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