YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK - AT 6:41 P.M. ET:  On-the-fence-on-health-reform Senator Mary Landrieu may be climbing off the fence...on the wrong side.  It turns out, as ABC reports, that a provision of the Senate's health "reform" bill seems to be a sweet offering to Mary:

What does it take to get a wavering senator to vote for health care reform?

Here’s a case study.

On page 432 of the Reid bill, there is a section increasing federal Medicaid subsidies for “certain states recovering from a major disaster.”

The section spends two pages defining which “states” would qualify, saying, among other things, that it would be states that “during the preceding 7 fiscal years” have been declared a “major disaster area.”

I am told the section applies to exactly one state: Louisiana, the home of moderate Democrat Mary Landrieu, who has been playing hard to get on the health care bill.

In other words, the bill spends two pages describing "would" could be written with a single world: Louisiana. (This may also help explain why the bill is long.)

Senator Harry Reid, who drafted the bill, cannot pass it without the support of Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu.

How much does it cost? According to the Congressional Budget Office: $100 million.

COMMENT:  That's your tax money, folks.  And that's the way the game is played.  And on provisions like that does our health-care future depend.

To your good health.

November 19, 2009