Now Senate Republicans Are Fighting to Keep Cornhusker Kickback and Leave Seniors’ Medicare ‘Donut Hole’ in Place

In the upside down world that is the United States Senate, Republicans and conservative Democrats have vowed to kill the “fix-it” amendment to the health-care reform law passed by the House on Sunday.

What this latest GOP flip-flop underscores is that conservatives really do not care about Americans’ health-care. They are motivated by solely by politics and their desire to inflict as much damage as they can onto the president and his party.

As Sen. John McCain, ever-increasingly now the Senate’s resident curmudgeon, put it, “There will be no cooperation for the rest of the year,” he told an Arizona radio station. “They have poisoned the well in what they’ve done and how they’ve done it.”

Elsewhere he said: “We’ll challenge it every place we can … We’ll fight everywhere.”

Finally McCain added: “‘Get off my lawn!”

But in their efforts to kill the amendment, conservatives are doing a complete about-face. Killing the amendment will let stand special deals to states, including Florida and Nebraska — the latter being the “Cornhusker Kickback” — which Republicans have lambasted since they were included in the Senate version last year.

Even conserva-Dem Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska — who in December traded his vote on the reform bill for the Cornhusker Kickback for his state — says he will vote against the fix-it amendment, meaning he’s now against the very backroom deal he sold his vote for three months ago.

Another provision in the amendment would close the “donut hole” in Medicare drug coverage. It seems likely that senators in states with lots of retirees — like Arizona where McCain is up for reelection this year — would think twice about preserving this product of Bush-era ineptitude that makes thousands of seniors choose between buying food and or paying for medicine.

What this latest GOP flip-flop underscores is that conservatives really do not care about Americans’ health-care. They are motivated solely by politics and their desire to inflict as much damage as they can onto the president and his party.

But it’s foolhardy moves like this — coming out to oppose elements of the bill, like the Cornhusker Kickback, that they demonized — that puts them at risk of being unmasked before their own voters as what they are: craven politicians who care more about their own careers than they do the health and welfare of the American people.

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4 thoughts on “Now Senate Republicans Are Fighting to Keep Cornhusker Kickback and Leave Seniors’ Medicare ‘Donut Hole’ in Place”

  1. Could conservatives be more wrong? Are they really that stupid? They think they will be rewarded for non-participation and obstructionism. The people who elected Obama need to stand up and support the Democrats who supported healthcare reform and actively oppose those who tried to stop it. Stupak should be the first to go.

  2. The bottom line is that NO one likes change, but it is necessary, especially in the case of better health care for an entire nation.

    One of the things being blown out of proportion is that “Obamacare” will force folks who don’t need/don’t want health insurance to purchase it.

    Now, just who “doesn’t need” health insurance? By law we must have auto insurance if we pilot a car, and it’s a good law that has proven itself to be sane, effective and NECESSARY. So, if you are a living, breathing human being, you are piloting your body around and you will sooner or later need medical care.

    However, there could be a compromise here if push comes to shove. Those who don’t want to be insured can bow out, but the first time they visit a doctor or an ER and don’t pay the bill in it’s entirety, they must start paying for heathcare insurance.

  3. The ONLY thing happening here is the republinuts and he blue puppies DO NOT like Obama. All you blue puppies out there, your HISTORY, all you conservative republinuts you thought we (Dems) were organized in 08, you ain’t seen NOTHING yet. This is the FIRST president in my life I have seen following through on the PROMISES he made the American people during the campaign. What a concept huh!!!!!!

  4. Watching the debate before the historic vote, I was struck with just how exactly watching a Republican argue is like watching a five year-old who can’t have everyone elses candy.

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