Where's the Bacon From Hagan? How about your senator, why didn’t they get sweetheart deals?

Where's the Bacon From Hagan?
Posted: Dec 21, 2009
By: Bill Johnston

If you watched the healthcare reform bill bully its way through the Senate this weekend, you learned one thing: The cost of bribing one state cannot hold back historic healthcare reform.

President Barack Obama promised that negotiations for healthcare will be on CSPAN. I want to see the episode of Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) being given an exemption for Medicaid and Medicare Expenses. I want to hear how he expressed how Nebraska is so unique that the federal government must fully fund their expanded Medicaid population. Then, I want to hear how the Democratic leadership, hearing of such a burden, agreed to do this without a quid pro quo. In other words, his vote was not being purchased, but rather the country was moving to calm this cry for his beloved Nebraska.

Nelson’s vote was clearly purchased, which means that every state in the US with a Democratic Senator other than the name of Nelson or Landrieu did not bring home the bacon.

So where was Kay Hagan in this process? Why didn’t Kay Hagan win unique concessions for the State of North Carolina? What is it that’s so special that Nebraska and Louisiana get special consideration to purchase their votes, yet the Tar Heel State is left out in the cold?

If you put it like that; if you see that the vote was clearly purchased, then put aside the fact that the Democrats accomplished something that will be described as historic. Instead ask yourself the question: Why didn’t my senator from North Carolina do her job, and bring our state these kinds of concessions too?

Answer: There was no need to buy her vote.