As Sen. Ben Nelson was never really a proponent of health care reform- his ambivalence regarding abortion appears to just be a convenient cover to be an obstructionist- it appears that the real reason for Nelson’s “Cornhusker Kickback” is to basically extort the federal government into dropping health care reform. Or, you know, give up on the formula that sahres Medicaid costs between the federal and state governments, and have the federal government pay 100% of the costs. And this would result in Barack Obama’s desired deficit-nuetral, less-than-$1 trillion health care bill and pretty much punch a multi-trillion dollar hole into our deficit. And the sad thing is, not only would Sen. Nelson’s misguided efforts end up bankrupting the federal government- I’ll spare the mawkish and over-used sentiment regarding “our children”- but it would also, if his desire to see the federal government “fully fund” Medicare is legitimate and is realized, would result in bankrupting state governments as well!
In other words, Sen. Nelson’s utterly ridiculous plan- which seems to have been concocted by Sean Penn’s character in “I Am Sam”- fits the definition of “lose-lose.”
Bankrupting federal and state deficits would be an awfully odd tack for a deficit hawk to take. No, its pretty clear that Sen. Nelson- one of those good ol’ untrustworthy “Blue Dog” Democrats- is little else than a master extortionist, willing to hang the rest of the country out to dry in an effort to get the ugly spectre of health care dropped.
This would be fine, if the ugly realization of the status quo wasn’t so horrible. As the Wonk Room points out:
Under the Senate bill, the federal government is funding the expansion for the first several years and increasing its contribution to Medicaid over the long term. States, which have a certain degree of flexibility in how the implement the Medicaid program, are required to partly finance the Medicaid expansion in out-years of the 10-year budget window. But in doing so, they’re also make an investment towards lowering health care costs. With reform, states would be spending less on health care than they would if they did nothing at all. Without reform, costs continue to rise. States are forced to spend millions on uncompensated care for the uninsured. Residents with coverage are paying higher premiums to compensate emergency room services. State must stretch their Medicaid budgets, particularly during periods of economic recession, and have little to spend on other social services.
It takes a certain caliber of individual to be a Senator. It is quite clear that Sen. Nelson lacks that caliber.
