Cornhusker Kickback a Place Marker???
By LisaB on January 2, 2010 at 4:50 PM in Current Affairs
Ben Nelson feels he has taken enough heat for selling his health care vote to get Nebraska an exemption for paying the coming increase in Medicaid. His chief of staff sent a letter to the ringleader of the Republican states attorneys general proposing to file suit against the federal government on behalf of states not getting Nebraska’s break. In that letter Nelson’s chief of staff audaciously claims that Nebraska isn’t receiving special treatment since, he states, the same Medicaid deal (all Medicaid costs covered in perpetuity by the federal government) will be offered to every one of the 50 states.
Politico reported on that letter.
According to a copy of a memo sent by McMaster’s chief of staff to other GOP state attorneys general detailing the call, Nelson asked McMaster to “call off the dogs,” a reference to recent threats by the state AGs to file a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a Medicaid provision in the bill that benefits Nebraska at the expense of other states.
Under the terms of a deal Nelson cut with Senate leaders to secure his crucial vote for the health care package, Nebraska would be exempted from having to pay for the coverage of its new Medicaid enrollees—leaving the federal government to pick up the tab. The deal is expected to cost the federal government $100 million over the next 10 years.
OK. But there is something else here.
The memo, written by McMaster Chief of Staff Trey Walker, explains that Nelson told McMaster that the Medicaid deal had not been his idea, and that the same Medicaid exemption would be extended to other states.
“Senator Nelson insisted that he had not asked for the Cornhusker Kickback to be placed in the U.S. Senate version of the health care bill to secure his vote. Senator Nelson told the attorney general that it was simply a ‘marker’ placed in the U.S. Senate version of the bill and assured the attorney general that it would be ‘fixed,’ says the memo.
The document goes on to say: “Senator Nelson said it would be ‘fixed’ by extending the Cornhusker Kickback (100% federal payment) on Medicaid to every state.”
Holy cow. Every state??? How the hell will THAT be paid for? And what was that Obama said about healthcare and the deficit????
NQ has covered several angles of this story:
RRRA described how some states attorneys general felt about this, in “Medicaid Deal Could Represent Corruption.”
Bronwyn’s Harbor described how Nebraskans felt about Nelson’s deal in “Nebraska Voters Don’t Care about Nelson’s Pork.”
I did a piece on what some other “blue” states are saying about the health care bill and Nelson’s deal in “Spread the Healthcare Wealth? Look who’s Saying No Way.”
What say you???
by Ronald Scott
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