Will Congressional Democrats Vote for the Cornhusker Kickback, Louisiana Purchase?

03/09/2010

Source: National Republican Campaign Committee (NRCC)

WASHINGTON - With Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Barack Obama making their last-ditch push for their unpopular health care agenda, it’s time for Congressional Democrats to take a stand. As majority leadership attempts to usher a health care bill through the House with Democrats' seal of approval, they have a dirty secret: In order to run their end-around on the American people, Democrats will first have to approve the current health care bill – and all of the shady backroom deals that come along with it.

The last front in the health care fight is in the House of Representatives and Pelosi is scraping by to achieve a razor-thin majority. If Democrats vote for the bill currently being pushed by Democrat leaders, they are voting in support of the Cornhusker Kickback, the Louisiana Purchase and every other backroom deal cut to sneak the legislation through Congress.

• “In his weekly address, released Saturday, President Obama said he's asked ‘leaders in both of Houses of Congress to finish their work and schedule a vote in the next few weeks.’”

• “It's not clear the president has the votes. He needs 216 votes in the House, where some Democrats are saying no. In the Senate, Democrats are expected to try to pass the latest version with a bare majority of 51, instead of the 60 votes it usually takes to move legislation, through a controversial tactic called reconciliation. Republicans called that a recipe for partisan warfare.” (John Hendren, “New Deadline Set to Pass Health Care Bill,” ABC News, 3/7/2010)

• “Then there's the perception of payoffs to states represented by senators who hesitated on supporting the Senate's health care bill, part of the overhaul that Obama had named his top legislative priority.

• “Dubbed the ‘Cornhusker kickback’ and the ‘Louisiana purchase,’ the deals with Democratic Sens. Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana drew derision for the perception of sneakiness they created.” (Laurie Kellman and Larry Margasak, Associated Press, “Democrats mired in swamp they vowed to drain,” 3/4/2010)

“The only thing transparent about the Democrats’ shady backroom deals is their utter disregard for the intelligence of American taxpayers and voters,” said NRCC Communications Director Ken Spain. “President Obama and Nancy Pelosi vowed repeatedly to keep their Congress ‘honest’ and keep congressional dealings open to the American public. But now they are asking Democrats to go on the record with their support for these unpopular closed-door deals so they can sneak their runaway health care agenda through Congress while no one is looking. Will they stand up for the hard-working middle-class American families that have already rejected this bill or will they sit quietly while Democrat leaders attempt to pull the wool over the American public’s eyes?”