The $100 Million Woman

One other note on healthcare reform -- glad to see a Lousiana politician willing to put a price on her vote...

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.

When John McCain's willing to say that it looks like Reid is buying Mary Landrieu's vote... well, I don't think it's that common for a Senator to outright claim that a colleague is being bribed. But $100 million here is no big deal, when we're discussing $1 trillion or more.