Landrieu’s Medicaid Deal Hurts Middle Class Taxpayers Everywhere

By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

I know politics is the art of the possible and compromise is key. But I'm sickened by the taxpayer cash being doled out as "walking around money" to lure Democrats into the healthcare fold. Here's what the Wall Street Journal said:

Take Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu. She's now likely to vote with Mr. Reid on Saturday after an amendment was inserted to increase her state's federal Medicaid subsidies by $100 million. The amendment devotes two pages to language making certain that only Louisiana would be entitled to the extra cash.

A Senator's healthcare vote should be based on whether he or she believes in public subsidies, from middle class and wealthy taxpayers, to provide healthcare for low income Americans. It should not be based on the government equivalent of a bribe.

Who loses on both ends of this type of deal? Middle class taxpayers, that's who. We are the ones who get taxed ad nauseam and unlike wealthy taxpayers, we can ill afford higher taxes.

Healthcare needs fixing in this country. Insurance companies have gotten away too long with scams such as "preexisting conditions" and charging certain customers more because they happen to be old or happen to be female. That does not mean we need the wholesale sea change proposed by the Obama administration which includes cheap insurance premiums funded by the federal government for people who claim they can't afford insurance.

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