Obama wants to strike MA/VT provision in the healthcare bill

[Mass]

So, basically, MA and VT can be screwed because they did the right thing years ago by extending Medicaid on their own dime! Thanks, Mr President.

http://www.wickedlocal.com/belmont/town_info/government/x342381432/Unions-say-No-to-pay-freezes

But Obama has asked Reid to strike a provision that would send $1.1 billion in extra Medicaid funding to Massachusetts and Vermont -- states that have already expanded Medicaid coverage but would otherwise not be reimbursed at the same level as states that would boost their Medicaid populations for the first time under the bill's mandate.

"What I told Harry Reid is that Vermont does the right thing, and I don't want Vermont to be penalized for doing the right thing," Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said in a statement.

Through a spokeswoman, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said he, too, was working with the president "to make sure Massachusetts's past investment to expand health coverage to low-income individuals is recognized in health reform."

[MannyGoldstein]

1. VT and MA Are The Most Liberal States in the Country

It's just payback - we need to keep these people and their, (as Rahm says) "fucking retarded" ideas in line, or who knows where it will lead?

[Donnachaidh]

2. ironic, isn't it? Bernie Sanders gets behind the POS bill in exchange for this

and gets screwed when it gets down to the wire.

Yeah -- Obama is *sure* to put in the promised *fixes* -- right? Right?

:crickets:

I would NOT hold your breath folks. It's really NOT about those people dying for lack of insurance -- it's for protecting future profits for the insurance companies.

Teddy Kennedy is spinning Mach one in his grave.

[donco6]

7. He fell for Lucy with the football again. n/t

[dkf]

3. What the hell is wrong with Obama?

Seriously I'm getting more and more pissed at him.

[depakid]

4. He certainly seems to have a tendency to stick it to his supporters

while pandering to and even rewarding those tirelessly work to thwart traditional Democratic values and constituencies.

[karynnj]

8. All I can think - is kneejerk reaction "no special deals"

when these two "deals" were actually not unfair, but correcting an underlying formula which was unfair.

Not to mention, the VT money would have been used in a way that would have provided insight into how clinics like this could be used to lower costs of coverage. The MA money was also to go to that state testing other possible ways to deliver better medicine less expensively.

[Moosepoop]

5. The link in the OP took me to a labor dispute article.

I Googled the first line in the quote box and found the article anyway, it's from Politico.
http://mobile.politico.com/story.cfm?id=34235&cat=topnews

Also in the article is this:

Obama wants side deals out of bill
By Carrie Budoff Brown | 3/10/10 @ 8:11 PM EST

President Barack Obama is pushing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to go further than Obama has previously disclosed to strip the final health care reform bill of the narrow deals aimed at appeasing specific senators.

The president wants to eliminate more than just Sen. Ben Nelson’s “Cornhusker Kickback” and Sen. Bill Nelson’s agreement to shield 800,000 Florida seniors from Medicare Advantage cuts, the White House told POLITICO Wednesday in response to questions about other deals in the bill.

Obama has asked Reid to strike provisions requested by senators from at least five other states, in an unusual move that accentuates the culture clash between the president’s rhetoric on changing the ways of Washington and the Senate leader’s needs to exercise the old-fashioned tools of Congress to pass laws.

“We’ve removed many of the special provisions that initially found their way into the legislation, and we’ve made it clear to the Senate that the president’s position is that the final bill shouldn’t include any earmarks or provisions that would favor a single state or district over the rest of the country,” White House spokesman Reid Cherlin said in a statement Wednesday.

The article also says that according to a spokesman for Harry Reid, congressional leaders have the final say and that no decisions have been made yet.

So, yes -- Obama has asked for the striking of particular provisions that have could be seen as containing favoritism and earmarks. The representatives from the states in question are making their cases for each one to the people who will ultimately decide. The outcome is up to them.

[Mass]

9. Thanks for the link. I am not sure why, but the link changed since I posted the article.

Yes, the Senate and House can (and hopefully will) change this, but the point is that president Obama did not only ask to get rid of the Nelson's proposal, but also of the part that makes a plane field for MA and VT. It is not favoritism. It is giving them the same subsidies other states get.

[karynnj]

6. Not only is this unfair, but the money was to encourage them to prototype

possible future improvements.

I suspect that this is a kneejerk reaction to the animosity against "special deals", but Pat Leahy's comment is as simple, clear and right as it gets - "I don't want Vermont to be penalized for doing the right thing".

Maybe they should simply change the underlying provision that uses where a state before to something that reimburses all states in the same way - which would do the same thing, not just for VT and MA, but for all states that did the right thing.