The Democrats' fickle-and-dime health strategy

The Democrats' fickle-and-dime health strategy
"Iwill not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits, either now or in the future -laptop battery - period," President Obama told Congress in a health-care address last month.
Well, that depends on what the meaning of "plan" is.
Senate Democrats wanted to protect sony battery doctors from scheduled cuts in Medicare payments over the next 10 years, but there was a problem: Doing so would add a quarter of a trillion dollars to the federal deficit, making mincemeat of Obama's promise. So Democrats hatched a novel scheme: They would pass the legislation separately, so the $250 billion cost wouldn't be part of the main reform "plan," thereby allowing the president to claim that that bill wouldn't increase the deficit.
Republicans, who had been losing traction in their effort to fight a health-care overhaul, could hardly believe the gift the majority had given them.
"I have never witnessed something more sinister!" an agitated Sen. Bob vgp-bps2a Corker (Tenn.) declared on the Senate floor Tuesday morning. Citing a report that the "doc fix," as the $250 billion measure is called, was created to buy the American Medical Association's support for the main health-care bill, Corker accused the AMA of prostitution. "We all know that the selling of one's body is one of the oldest professions in the world," Corker said. "The AMA is engaged in basically selling the support of its body."
While Corker was on the Senate floor suggesting that the vgp-bps2b Democrats were johns paying for sex, Jon Kyl (Ariz.), the second-ranking Senate Republican, preferred a reptilian metaphor. "They thought they were getting a problem off the table, and instead they grabbed a rattlesnake by the tail and don't know how to let go," he told reporters as he headed to a lunch with his GOP colleagues in the Capitol.
Around the corner, John Cornyn (R-Tex.), the man in charge of the Senate Republicans' 2010 campaign, opted for numismatic imagery. "This, of course, violates one of the president's first principles, when he said he won't sign any health-care bill that adds one dime to the deficit," he reminded reporters. "This adds a lot of vgp-bps2c dimes to the deficit." Two and a half trillion, in fact.
"Iwill not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits, either now or in the future -- period," President Obama told Congress in a health-care address last month.
Well, that depends on what the meaning of "plan" is vgp-bpl2c.
Senate Democrats wanted to protect doctors from scheduled cuts in Medicare payments over the next 10 years, but there was a problem: Doing so would add a quarter of a trillion dollars to the federal deficit, making mincemeat of Obama's promise. So Democrats hatched a novel scheme: They would pass the legislation separately, so the $250 billion cost wouldn't be part of the main reform "plan," thereby allowing the president to claim that that bill wouldn't increase the deficit.
Republicans, who had been losing traction in their effort to fight a vgp-bps8 health-care overhaul, could hardly believe the gift the majority had given them.
"I have never witnessed something more sinister!" an agitated Sen. Bob Corker (Tenn.) declared on the Senate floor Tuesday morning. Citing a report that the "doc fix," as the $250 billion measure is called, was created to buy the American Medical Association's support for the main health-care bill, Corker accused the AMA of prostitution. "We all know that the selling of one's body is one of the oldest professions in the world," Corker said. "The AMA is engaged in basically selling the support of its body."
While Corker was on the Senate floor suggesting that the Democrats were johns vgp-bpl8 paying for sex, Jon Kyl (Ariz.), the second-ranking Senate Republican, preferred a reptilian metaphor. "They thought they were getting a problem off the table, and instead they grabbed a rattlesnake by the tail and don't know how to let go," he told reporters as he headed to a lunch with his GOP colleagues in the Capitol.
Around the corner, John Cornyn (R-Tex.), the man in charge of the Senate Republicans' 2010 campaign, opted for numismatic imagery. "This, of course, violates one of the president's first principles, when he said he won't sign any health-care bill that adds one dime to the deficit," he reminded reporters. "This vgp-bps9 adds a lot of dimes to the deficit." Two and a half trillion, in fact.