Further Changes To S. Con. Res. 13 Pursuant

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. I don't know how many of my colleagues have seen the editorial in today's Investors Business Daily.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the article to which I am going to refer.

There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:

Louisiana Purchase and Omaha Stakes

Politics: Mary Landrieu's payoff was the new ``Louisiana Purchase.'' Ben Nelson got Uncle Sam to pick up Nebraska's future Medicaid tab. Maybe we should just put Senate votes up on eBay.

Nelson, the 60th vote in the middle-of-the-night Senate party line vote on health care reform, will go down in American political history as the inventor of the permanent earmark. His seemingly principled stand against including federal funding for abortion evaporated like the morning dew as he decided to take what was behind door No. 1.

The deal for Nelson includes special Medicaid funding for Nebraska, along with Vermont and Massachusetts, which has a special election to fill the seat of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy coming up in January. Under the Senate bill every state is equal, but some are more equal than others. The other states and their taxpayers--that means you--will pick up this tab.

This came just three days after Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said on Neil Cavuto's Fox Business show that he was prepared to vote against the bill after the recent decision to strip the public option and the Medicare buy-in provision from the legislation to get the vote of Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.

Nelson won a permanent exemption from the state share of Medicaid expansion for Nebraska. Uncle Sam will take the hit for 100% of the Medicaid expansion for Nebraska--forever. The world's greatest deliberative body has now become the most corrupt.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) informed lawmakers Sunday night that this section of the manager's amendment to the Senate's health bill would cost $1.2 billion over 10 years.

Nebraska actually receives the least of the three, some $100 million over the first 10 years. Vermont will receive $600 million over 10 years, while Massachusetts will get $500 million.

Nelson, like most other senators, doesn't know what's really in this bill or what it costs, except for the scoring that involves comparing a decade of taxes with six or seven years of ``benefits.''

This includes gutting Medicare by half a trillion dollars. The abortion language he accepted may not survive conference or the Stupak amendment supporters in the House. The Medicaid bribe he accepted will.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the Boss Tweed of our time, defended how this sausage was made. ``You'll find a number of states that are treated differently than other states. That's what legislating is all about. It's about compromise,'' he said.

On the contrary, sir, it's about bribery--about what has been dubbed the ``Cornhusker kickback,'' and about politics done the ``Chicago Way.''

A $100 million item for construction of a university hospital was inserted in the Senate health care bill at the request of Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., who faces a difficult re-election campaign.

Presumably there's a wing where taxpayers can go to get their wallets removed.

The Democrats insist that their Medicare cuts will not lead to rationing. So why did, as HotAir.com reports, Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., insist on language that exempted three heavily Democratic counties in his home state from the cuts? If those massive cuts to the program won't hurt people on Medicare Advantage, why did Nelson fight to get exemptions for Palm Beach, Dade and Broward counties?

After all this wheeling and dealing, we will still have a cost-raising tax-increasing, Frankenstein monster of a bill hurriedly stitched together behind closed doors that will lead to doctor shortages and rationed care.

Mr. BARRASSO. The article is headlined: ``Louisiana Purchase and Omaha Stakes.'' The editorial says:

Politics: Mary Landrieu was the new ``Louisiana Purchase.'' Ben Nelson got the federal government to pick up his state's future Medicaid tab.

And the article continues:

Maybe we should just put Senate votes up on eBay. ..... Nelson won a permanent exemption from the state share of Medicaid expansion for Nebraska--forever. The world's greatest deliberative body has now become the most corrupt.

So Uncle Sam is taking the hit for 100 percent of the Medicaid expansion for Nebraska forever. That is what this says. It goes on to say this is not what legislating is about; that this is not compromise, rather, it is about bribery.

Mr. President, this is horrible for us as a nation to have these things written about this institution, when we should be way above any of these sorts of claims.

I look at that map that my colleague from Mississippi has up, with just Nebraska on there as the special deal, and I do not believe that is the way legislation should be written. We should be looking at ways to improve health care for all Americans, improve the quality, make it more affordable, make it more available to people, and give them the access they need.

I brought four amendments the other day, after Senator Reid brought his massive amendment to the floor, and each was rejected. They were things that would actually improve this bill and make it better for Americans.

So I stand here, looking at this, and reading headline after headline and editorial after editorial about just how very bad is the way this bill is being pushed forward. We certainly wouldn't want any young child to know how this is happening in their country, as we try to get them involved in this process and learn and study and feel that maybe they should become involved in this. This isn't what legislating in America is all about. We are better than this.

If you have to do these sorts of things to get a 60th vote, then the bill isn't good enough to pass. If the ideas aren't good enough to get the votes, then it shouldn't pass. In this country, we look for bipartisan solutions to the big issues of the day. That is what we did in the Wyoming Legislature. Major issues passed with overwhelming numbers. That is what has happened in this country throughout the course of history. The big bills have come forth with large numbers of supporters, and that is how you get the country to follow you, not by trying to force through a vote, buying a vote here and buying a vote there to just squeak by with the minimum amount of support. That is not the way to change policy that is going to affect everyone in the United States personally and affect one-sixth of our economy. That is not the way to do it.

It has not been the way, it shouldn't be the way, and it should never be the way again. I am looking for some Democrat to stand up and say: This isn't the way, and I am going to not vote for this bill.

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Mr. BARRASSO. It is not. There have been a number of references to our friend and colleague, the late Senator Ted Kennedy. Let's take a look at the book his brother, John Kennedy, wrote, ``Profiles in Courage.'' As we have seen all this, it is time for one courageous Democrat to stand and say: This is about our country. This is about our country, not about a kickback. This is about health care, not about a hand in the cookie jar.

That is what we need. We need one courageous Democrat to stand and say: I don't want to be part of this editorial that talks about the Louisiana Purchase and Omaha Stakes. I don't want to be a part of this that says this, the world's greatest deliberative body, has now become corrupt. I don't want to be a part of this that says this is about bribery.

It needs one courageous Democrat, 1 out of 60, to stand and say: I am going to vote no; we need to back up; we need to think about this. We have 100 Members of the Senate who want to reform health care in this country, who want to get the costs under control, who want to improve quality, who want to improve access--100 Senators want to do that. That is the goal of each and every one of us here.

We need one courageous Senator to say it is time, time now, to take a step back, let us go home over Christmas, let us think about this, let us talk to our constituents at home, let us hear what they have to say about this looking out for No. 1--$100 million. Dana Milbank's column in the Washington Post today, that is what we need now in the Senate. We need the kind of courage John Kennedy wrote about in ``Profiles in Courage.''

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