Ohio's Lump of Christmas Coal

If you want confirmation of the adage “nice guys finish last”, you need look no further than how Ohio, and for that matter most of the other states, got screwed in the Senate version of health care “reform.” In case you were sleeping, which wouldn’t be surprising given that the vote to end filibuster took place a 1:00 AM, Democratic Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska threw his principles out the window for thirty pieces of silver, giving Harry Reid and his progressive cabal the 60th vote needed to move the health care onto the Senate floor for final passage.

Senator Nelson is a conservative Democrat elected on the bluest of blue dog Democrat principles rooted in fiscal responsibility with a dash of strong anti-abortionism. 57% of his constituency opposed passage of this version of health care reform. Nelson did his dog and pony show waiving the pro-life flag; that is until Obama and Reid waived some green in front of his face.

Included in the quid pro quo for his vote was an exemption for Nebraska doctors from regulations prohibiting doctors from referring patients to hospitals that they own. It also provided a grant of $100 million for construction of a new university hospital. Finally, and this is really the one that you should be concerned about, it guaranteed that the Federal government would pick up 100% of Nebraska’s Medicaid costs for new Medicaid clients under the reform bill IN PERPETUITY.

Among many of the new hidden costs in the health care bill are federal mandates to the states to increase their Medicaid costs. Medicaid is federally mandated, but paid for and administered by the states, with state taxes. In Ohio, I believe it is the single biggest line item in the budget. California is on the verge of bankruptcy in large part because of unfunded Medicaid mandates. The same is true for New Jersey and New York. This is on top of a lesser, but still very expensive, $500 million deal made with Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu from Louisiana…also based in the Feds covering Louisiana’s Medicaid costs.

What that means, of course, is that the taxpayers in the rest of states, like Ohio, will not only be paying our Medicaid costs, but the costs of Nebraska and Louisiana.

So…..wither Senator Sherrod Brown from Ohio? What did he get for Ohio? What did he get for his vote? There is an Italian word for it that is perfect…but I’m afraid you would look it up. And “up” is exactly where Ohio got it!!!

On the other hand, at least we know that Sherrod Brown isn’t a whore…or maybe he is, and he just was too stupid to establish the price. Either way, this year Ohio got a bunch of coal in its Christmas stocking. Maybe we should all move to Nebraska.