As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, on Saturday night (yet another example of fantastic legislative transparency) the Senate voted to open debate on Sen. Reid’s health care bill by a margin of 60-39. Several moderate Democrats had expressed reservations about the bill, including Ben Nelson, Blanche Lincoln, and Joe Lieberman (yes, technically an independent, but who caucuses) with the Democrats. They all ended up voting to open debate while remaining wishy-washy on their final vote, but the vote of Sen. Mary Landrieu is one that deserves further consideration.
Sen. Landrieu is one of those red state Democrats who had expressed reservations about the bill’s cost and scope. Yet on Saturday she shrugged off those concerns and voted to bring the bill to the floor. One factor that may have contributed to her decision is a provision of the bill that will send $100 million to her home state of Louisiana in dementedly arcane legalese that doesn’t specifically name Louisiana but offers conditions for which only Louisiana qualifies.
It sure seems like a political buy-off, doesn’t it? The move was sarcastically dubbed the “Louisiana Purchase,” and on the surface, I don’t think a more apt name could have been chosen. Sen. Landrieu was keenly aware of the appearance of impropriety and as she took the Senate floor to announce her vote, said she wouldn’t be defensive. But she didn’t help her cause when she said, “And it’s not a $100 million fix. It’s a $300 million fix.”
Is this the kind of government we can be proud of? Is this the way we want sweeping health care upheaval enacted? Can reform supporters simply shrug this off as “the ends justify the means” and “just politics as usual”? Because I can’t. I don’t care how many times earmarks or political windfalls have been helpfully inserted into legislation by whatever party in the past. On an issue that concerns 1/6 of the American economy, it’s unacceptable to me to have Senators put their votes up for auction with the taxpayers’ money, of which Dana Milbank says we’ll surely see more examples. On a $20 million farm bill it’s egregious; on a $1 trillion perpetual entitlement program it borders on criminality.
Landrieu can excuse herself all she wants, and supporters can equivocate until the end of time. I have no faith now that Landrieu will act on her supposed concerns with the bill and will approve whatever comes through to the final vote simply so she can score some money and political capital at home. With what seems to be an obvious payoff, she’s shown what kind of politician she is – a typical one.
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Mr Pink Eyes
November 25, 2009
I am so disappointed with Nelson, Lieberman, and Landrieu. The fix was in and she admitted it. As you said this should not be something to be proud of. She didn’t really oppose the bill, she was looking for a handout and she got it. How many more millions will be spent in order to win the votes needed?
I am also really upset at Lieberman, he promised that he would never even vote for cloture if the public option was in the bill, only to cave in in the end. The time to have stopped this bill would have been before debate started.
thelouisianaexplorer
December 19, 2009
This isn’t the first purchase. Anyone taking junior high American History knows about that one. It’s not the second one either; and that one makes this so called “Louisiana Purchase” small potatoes. When Richard Leche, a former Huey Long’s associate, was elected Governor of Louisiana in 1937, Franklin Roosevelt knew he had a strong ally in Louisiana, Long had been assassinated and Leche had shown immense loyalty to Roosevelt. In response to this new found loyalty in Louisiana, Federal money flowed into Louisiana and this was referred to in the Washington and other main Presses as the second Louisiana Purchase. It wasn’t until Harvey G. Fields, Federal Prosecutor and former law partner of Huey Long’s, took the preliminary case to the Attorney General in 1939 that the illegal skimming of federal Funds stopped. In the end, Leche and 200 others in Louisiana were indicted; one being the president of LSU. The President of LSU attempted suicide and failed but three others succeeded. Lech went to prison for five years however following Fields death he immediately contacted the family to say he held no hard feelings and felt that Fields was a man of the highest integrity and honor. Fields private political papers were recently found after being lost for 45 years. AI book has just been released about the papers and Fields and is called “I Called Him Grand. The Lost Political Papers of Harvey G. Fields”. Over 100 letters are published and names such as Long, Roosevelt, Farley, Darrow and Leche are found throughout the book.