Chicago Politics in the Health Care Bill

Barack Obama's health care bill passed the second of four cloture votes in the Senate this morning and will likely pass entirely during an eleventh-hour vote on Christmas Eve. Polling universally shows that Americans don't support the government power grab. So how did Obama and company rack up the required 60 votes? They used the sort of corrupt pay-to-play politics usually restricted to smoke-wreathed Chicago backrooms, that's how. Here's a list of payoffs from the Washington Post:

"First there was the 'Louisiana Purchase,' $100 million in extra Medicaid money for the Bayou State, requested by Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.).

Then came the 'Cornhusker Kickback,' another $100 million in extra Medicaid money, this time for Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.).

This was followed by word that Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) had written into the legislation $100 million meant for a medical center in his state. This one was quickly dubbed the 'U Con.'

...

Indeed, the proliferation of deals has outpaced the ability of Capitol Hill cynics to name them.

Gator Aid: Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) inserted a grandfather clause that would allow Floridians to preserve their pricey Medicare Advantage program.

Handout Montana: Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) secured Medicare coverage for anybody exposed to asbestos -- as long as they worked in a mine in Libby, Mont."

Earlier this week, Joe Lieberman revealed that Obama never pressured him to support the public option; instead the president and Rahm basically gave Lieberman whatever he wanted to obtain his support. It was also reported that Ben Nelson was meeting constantly with his friend Obama to hammer out a compromise on abortion. (The compromise ultimately had very little to do with abortion and everything to do with cold hard cash to Nelson's state in the form of Medicaid money.) In other words, the driving force behind these kickbacks was none other than Barack Obama -- which makes perfect sense given his background in Chicago politics.