Politics: A Spoonful of Pork Helps the Medicine Go Down
So what's the price of health care reform? Apparently, it's whatever a U.S. senator willing to hold out on voting for cloture wants it to be:
To be honest, I hope this 60-40 party line split in the Senate continues for as long as possible. With any luck, the wholesale abandonment of any kind of principles will get at least some of these people thrown out of office. I can't imagine any average citizen, of any political persuasion, liking all the pork and blatant cronyism packed in this bill. It's not even being concealed any more. The AMA got its cosmetic surgery tax thrown out, for instance. Nebraska got its Medicaid propped up on the Federal dime. And so it goes...
posted by Mulliga @ 8:20 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Curious, does removing a tax premium on a particular good or service count as "pork"?
Or did I misunderstand what was on the table? I thought the discussion was about an increased tax that applied only to cosmetic surgery?
Strictly speaking, I guess "pork" would be limited to federal spending on local projects mostly designed to benefit a Congresscritter's re-election hopes.
But, I think the push to kill the Botox tax has at least the same spirit of pork barrel politics. In its quick turnabout of support, the AMA, like the holdouts on the Hill, has shown that it'll support health care reform...but only as long as it doesn't hurt them in the pocketbook.
Plus, it made for a catchy post title.
Post a Comment
<< Home