Health Care BS

Harry Reid planned to pull a fast one on the American people today,  but a funny thing happened on the way to cloture:

Twelve Democrats and one independent joined all 40 Senate Republicans in defeating a motion by Reid to begin debate on the doctors fix bill on Wednesday.

The “doctors fix” was really a $247 billion bribe to the American Medical Association for its support of health care “reform”:

Reid had offered the doctors group a deal to pass the “doctors’ fix” in return for support from the doctors on President Barack Obama’s broader healthcare initiative.

But 12 Dems and one Independent gagged on the price tag. $247 billion is a lot of money to buy off one special interest group.

Still, as Philip Klein points out, it’s too soon to celebrate. In order for Obamacare to pass, the AMA has to be paid off:

The way that this vote could end up affecting the overall health care debate is if it means that the AMA, which said it was ‘deeply disappointed’ by the outcome, ultimately comes out against the final health care legislation.

Neither Harry Reid nor the President will let that happen. In the end, the AMA will wolf down a big chunk of taxpayer cash.

UPDATE I:

Even Sullivan understands that the Dems were up to serious skulduggery on this one:

Good for the Republicans and those Democrats who balked at an unfunded $247 billion bribe to doctors to keep taking Medicare patients. The key word here is unfunded. It’s fiscally, well, Bush-like, to add this to the debt without offering any way to pay for it.

Yep.

UPDATE II:

Commenter ECM points out that Bush was a piker on deficit spending compared to Obama, and the following chart comfirms that Sullivan does indeed have a selective memory: