Are all Democrat senators equally corrupt on health care bill?

Karl Rove:

By now Majority Leader Harry Reid's explanation for how he is getting his health-care bill through the Senate has pinged its way across the country. "I don't know if there is a senator that doesn't have something in this bill that was important to them," he said this week. "And if they don't have something in it important to them, then it doesn't speak well of them." But take these comments two steps further and it becomes clear that how Mr. Reid reached unanimity in his caucus could hurt Democrats more than they realize.

First, taking Mr. Reid at his word means every Democratic senator got something. That implies there are even more howlers to discover that will dog Democrats next year.

After all, we now know Florida Sen. Bill Nelson got $3.5 billion to pay for seniors in his state to keep their Medicare Advantage policies when seniors in other states will be forced out of theirs. This wasn't a late add. It was just missed in the opaque language of the original Senate bill.

Second, any Democrat who assumes that it's OK to pass a bad bill because it includes a good deal for them is missing a larger dynamic of the Senate. When costs balloon, as they will, Congress will have to revisit health care. When it does, it will have little incentive to cut deals with individual senators when the public is clamoring about costs and there is no need to scramble for every vote.

Ah, a beam of light! And one that reveals the problem with getting short-term benefits for a state in exchange for long-term costs for the nation.

Consider that, thanks to senators from each state, Vermont gets $600 million for its Medicaid program and Massachusetts $500 million. But for the former the money runs out in six years and for the latter in just three.

Ben Nelson also won an exemption from the tax being levied on other Medigap insurance providers for Mutual of Omaha. There's also the "Nebraska-Michigan Compromise" in which Blue Cross/Blue Shield companies in both states get a carve-out on the insurance tax while the rest of the country's Blues get socked with it. How long that lasts may depend on how honest Democrats were in estimating costs. The pricier their bill is, the more likely this deal is upended.

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This is a partial list, but what we'll get for it all is rationed care and exploding deficits. Taxes start going up now, Medicare cuts begin after next fall's election, and spending for subsidies commences in five years....

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To make it look like it will save money the Democrats have included a huge reduction in reimbursement to doctors for treating Medicare patients. The chances of that happening are remote. Congress will have to increase the reimbursement or people will be waiting in long lines for treatment by the few doctors will to take that kind of cut.