Harry Reid finally managed to find his 60 votes. He did it by finally buying out Democrat Ben Nelson, in one of the most blatant examples of political prostitution ever seen in Washington.
Turns out that Louisiana's Mary Landreiu priced her services kind of cheaply at that. She must be green with envy at a higher priced hooker like Ben Nelson.
Here's what Ben Nelson sold himself for.
Essentially, American taxpayers will pay Nebraska’s Medicare bills forever. He also got special federally funded exemptions physician owned hospitals in Nebraska — and Nebraska only. Nelson essentially sold his vote and caved on federal funding for abortions in order to get the money.
Since Obama Care’s “reforms” are going to skyrocket medicare costs and insurance premiums and put an immense financial burden on already stressed state budgets, Nelson’s bribe is going to be worth billions of dollars over time.But not to the people of Nebraska,and I have a feeling most of them realize it.
Remember that Nebraskans still pay federal income taxes, and they will still be responsible for their part of the ultimate price tag. And that includes nearly $400 billion in new taxes over the next decade and by nearly $500 billion in spending reductions, primarily cuts to Medicare as seniors face rationed care.
The revised Senate bill would require every American for the first time to obtain insurance or face a penalty of as much as $750 a year or 2 percent of their income, whichever is greater, with a cap for families set at $2,250. Want to bet that your new insurance premiums will be geared to those numbers? And remember, since you're required to to buy insurance from somebody, there's no incentive for competition in pricing or services. In fact, there's every incentive for insurance companies to collude on pricing - which is exactly what happened in California after the state made auto insurance mandatory.
Any 'savings' will not trickle down but merely go to the state government to plug other holes in the dam.
And guess what - those higher taxes and penalties go into effect immediately, which means 2010. So next year, everyone - including the residents of Nebraska - are going to be taxed at a higher rate and forced to purchase mandatory insurance. But the so-called benefits of the program don't actually kick in until 2014. That allows the Democrats to get through the 2010 elections and get Barack Obama re-elected before people start noticing how long it takes them to actually see a doctor or get a needed operation performed.
At least that's the plan - because they think you're stupid.
The Senate bill supposedly will cost a mere $871 billion over the next decade,supposedly reducing federal budget deficits by $132 billion during the same period. These numbers have fluctuated wildly...originally, the Baucus Bill was projected to cost $829 billion while allegedly cutting the deficit by by $81 billion over a decade, and let's not even talk about the House bill once it hits reconciliation and all the House bribes get added in.
Let's reduce this to a more human scale.
I've got a deal for you - I want you to refinance your mortgage now in 2009 dollars and spend $8,710 in fees and costs. In exchange you'll save $1,320 over ten years in 2019 dollars..if my figures are correct and nothing changes.
Any takers out there?
If there are, I have some friends in Nigeria with an amazing business proposition for you - But Your Trust Is Required.
Actually, the real numbers don't matter. Those figures are absolutely certain to be bogus because the Democrats made sure that provisions requiring a photo ID and proof of citizenship to access coverage were stripped out of the bill. Language supposedly prohibiting this kind of abuse is in the Baucus bill - at least it is now - but with no means of enforcement, so it's cosmetic.
And since our southern border is still a sieve and likely to remain so under this administration,any projections on savings that don't take into consideration the system abuse by non-citizens are seriously out of whack. And we haven't even mentioned the cost of fraud.
Here's another funny - once cloture is voted on, it will only take 51 votes pass this bill and send it to the House. Don't be surprised if Nelson votes against it then, with Harry Reid's express permission, when Nelson has nothing to lose.Just so he can go back home and tell his constituents that he really actually voted against ObamaCare.
Like I said, they think you're stupid.
UPDATE: Uhhh, the CBO is now correcting itself and saying that amount that ObamaCare will supposedly cut the deficit was just a wee bit optimistic..
Look for further walkbacks in the 'savings' as time goes on.
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