For Sale: One senator
(D-Neb.) No principles, low price.
By Michael Gerson
Wednesday, December 23, 2009; A19
Sometimes there is a fine ethical line between legislative maneuvering and
bribery. At other times, that line is crossed by a speeding, honking
tractor-trailer, with outlines of shapely women on mud flaps bouncing as it
rumbles past.
Such was the case in the final hours of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's
successful attempt to get cloture on health-care reform. Sen. Ben Nelson of
Nebraska, the last Democratic holdout, was offered and accepted a permanent
exemption from his state's share of Medicaid expansion, amounting to $100 million over 10 years.
Afterward, Reid was unapologetic. "You'll find," he said, "a number of states
that are treated differently than other states. That's what legislating is all
about."
But legislating, presumably, is also about giving public reasons for the
expenditure of public funds. Are Cornhuskers particularly sickly and fragile? Is
there a malaria outbreak in Grand Island? Ebola detected in Lincoln?
Reid didn't even attempt to offer a reason why Medicaid in Nebraska should be
treated differently from, say, Medicaid across the Missouri River in Iowa. The
majority leader bought a vote with someone else's money. Does this conclusion
sound harsh? Listen to Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who accused the Senate leadership and the administration of "backroom
deals that amount to bribes" and "seedy Chicago politics" that "personifies the
worst of Washington."
This special deal for Nebraska raises an immediate question: Why doesn't
every Democratic senator demand the same treatment for his or her state?
Eventually, they will. After the Nelson deal was announced, Sen. Tom Harkin of
Iowa enthused, "When you look at it, I thought well, God, good, it is
going to be the impetus for all the states to stay at 100 percent (coverage by
the federal government). So he might have done all of us a favor." In a single
concession, Reid undermined the theory of Medicaid -- designed as a shared
burden between states and the federal government -- and added to future federal
deficits.
Unless this little sweetener is stripped from the final bill by a
House-Senate conference committee in January, which would leave Nelson with a
choice. He could enrage his party by blocking health reform for the sake of $100
million -- making the narrowness of his interests clear to everyone. Or he could
give in -- looking not only venal but also foolish.
How did Nelson gain such leverage in the legislative process in the first
place? Because many assumed that his objections to abortion coverage in the
health bill were serious -- not a cover, but a conviction. Even though Nelson, a
rare pro-life Democrat, joked in an interview that he might be considered a
"cheap date," Republican leadership staffers in the Senate thought he might
insist on language in the health-care bill preventing public funds from going to
insurance plans that cover abortion on demand, as Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak had done in the House.
Instead, Nelson caved. The "compromise" he accepted allows states to prohibit
the coverage of elective abortions in their insurance exchanges. Which means
that Nebraska taxpayers may not be forced to subsidize insurance plans that
cover abortions in Nebraska. But they will certainly be required to subsidize
such plans in California, New York and many other states.
In the end, Nelson not only surrendered his beliefs, he also betrayed the
principle of the Hyde Amendment, which since 1976 has prevented the coverage of
elective abortion in federally funded insurance. Nelson not only violated his
pro-life convictions, he also may force millions of Americans to violate theirs
as well.
I can respect those who are pro-life out of conviction and those who are
pro-choice out of conviction. It is more difficult to respect politicians
willing to use their deepest beliefs -- and the deepest beliefs of others -- as
bargaining chips.
In a single evening, Nelson managed to undermine the logic of Medicaid,
abandon three decades of protections under the Hyde Amendment and increase the
public stock of cynicism. For what? For the sake of legislation that greatly
expands a health entitlement without reforming the health system; that siphons
hundreds of billions of dollars out of Medicare instead of using that money to
reform Medicare; that imposes seven taxes on Americans making less than $250,000
a year, in direct violation of a presidential pledge; that employs Enron-style
accounting methods to inflate future cost savings; that pretends to tame the
insurance companies while making insurance companies the largest beneficiaries
of reform.
And, yes, for $100 million. It is the cheap date equivalent of Taco Bell.
mgerson@globalengage.org
© 2009 The
Washington Post Company