Readers may recall Senator Coburn's amendment to the reconciliation sidecar legislation that would prevent sex offenders from receiving taxpayer funded Viagra and other erectile drug therapies. Politico posted the text of the amendment March 23rd, noting Republicans were doing their best to derail the reconciliation package by forcing Democrats to take some hard votes to avoid sending the bill back to the House:
No Erectile Dysfunction Drugs To Sex Offenders – This amendment would enact recommendations from the Government Accountability Office to stop fraudulent payments for prescription drugs prescribed by dead providers or, to dead patients. This amendment also prohibits coverage of Viagra and other ED medications to convicted child molesters, rapists, and sex offenders, and prohibits coverage of abortion drugs. (Note: the creation of exchanges could allow sex offenders to receive taxpayer-funded Viagra and other ED drugs unless Congress expressly prohibits this action – see additional background attached)
No one appears to have taken Coburn's warning very seriously and it was too much to hope they read the additional background material Coburn provided. The amendment failed in a 57-42 vote and was later described as ""a crass political stunt aimed at making 30-second (political) commercials.”" by Senator Max Baucus. Baucus further suggested the amendment made a "mockery" of a serious bill. Baucus might want to rethink which was the serious bill and which was the "mockery." Both Roll Call and Fox News report on a Congressional Research Service memo that confirms there is indeed nothing in the new law that would prevent sex offenders from receiving Viagra through taxpayer subsidized health benefit exchanges just as Coburn warned:
The CRS said there are no provisions in the new health care law "which would require health plans to limit the type of benefits that can be offered based on the plan beneficiary's prior criminal convictions."
"Additionally, there do not appear to be any provisions that would specifically restrict qualified health plans' coverage of drugs prescribed to treat ED," the memo read.
"Therefore, a convicted rapist, child molester, or other sex offender who is not incarcerated would not appear to be excluded from enrolling in a qualified health plan through an American Health Benefit Exchange in their state solely because of that conviction," the memo added.
Senate Democrats failed in their efforts to spare the House another vote. Was it all worth it, the second House vote passed with more of a whimper than a bang. Now it seems the Democrats are the ones who are left to sort out the sordid details of their own bill. Does that amendment vote still look good in the light of day? I'll bet not, though Democrats aren't likely to admit regrets for having chosen the blue pill. The deed is done and Democrats now face what is bound to be the world's longest "walk of shame." Expect the video sometime before November.
Where else but at the The Huffington Post would you see articles calling for the defeat of the Reid health care bill and a vicious attack against a Republican for doing the very same thing? As you will see in the video below Coburn's statement was a long way away from a wish for the death of Senator Byrd (D WV). Coburn's statement is as follows:
What the American people ought to pray is that somebody can't make the vote tonight," "That's what they ought to pray."
Never mind the fact that the Dems drag a 92 year old Byrd, who has been in and out of hospitals, out in the snow in the middle of the night so they can ram through an unpopular takeover of our health care system, it's Coburn who is somehow evil for hoping the American people might be spared the travesty because he is praying for a miracle to stop it. Senator Durbin took to the floor to make a spectacle of Coburn's statement:
As Dana Milbank points out in the Washington Post Dems were hardly in a position to take the high road after one of their own Senator Whitehouse, "had just delivered an overwrought jeremiad comparing the Republicans to Nazis on Kristallnacht, lynch mobs of the South, and bloodthirsty crowds of the French Revolution." Milbank was not exaggerating, the bizarre references are clearly there in Whitehouse's statement:
"Too many colleagues are embarked on a desperate, no-holds-barred mission of propaganda, obstruction and fear," he said. "History cautions us of the excesses to which these malignant, vindictive passions can ultimately lead. Tumbrils have rolled through taunting crowds. Broken glass has sparkled in darkened streets. Strange fruit has hung from southern trees." Assuming the role of Old Testament prophet, Whitehouse promised a "day of judgment" and a "day of reckoning" for Republicans.
The day of judgment seems to loom over the head of the Democrats for this debacle yet somehow Whitehouse sees the day of reckoning for Republicans? It's time they all went home, clearly the fact they have been cooped up in the Senate for 22 days straight has damaged the synapses of the politically suicidal Democrats. The 22 day stint to ram health care through before Christmas is coming close to breaking the record for the longest straight debate in the Senate. The current record is 25 days when the Senate met continuously in the early days of World War I.
UPDATE: Legal Insurrection has video and links to transcripts from Whitehouse's speech. It's vile. Milbank should not have equated the Coburn statement with the insane rantings from Whitehouse, there's no comparison.
It's a bedtime story really; a painfully long bedtime story. Senator Coburn asks for a reading of Bernie Sanders amendment that would establish a single payer health care system despite the fact this amendment had absolutely chance of passing. As Ed Morrissey points out this move obviously makes hay of efforts to ram this through before Christmas. Moreover, it calls to the attention of the American people how insane this entire process has been. There's no transparency, and even with a reading of this 767 page amendment Max Baucus doubts the Senators, who would be expected to vote on it, will understand what's been read to them:
Jim DeMint issued a release backing Coburn in the procedural move, via The Hill:
"This bill allows the federal government to take over our health care system, and it must be stopped. We will use whatever procedural tools are necessary to defeat this bill," DeMint said.
Ed Morrissey has more from DeMint:
“Democrats are playing a bait and switch trick — wasting our time debating a bill they’ve rejected while writing a new one in secret. Right now, behind closed doors, Democrats are writing a brand new bill, thousands of pages long, and want to rush it through before Christmas.”
“Americans are tired of watching their leaders in Washington pass bills they haven’t even bothered to read,” said Senator DeMint. “If Senator Reid won’t slow down this debate, we will do it for him. This bill allows the federal government to take over our health care system, and it must be stopped. We will use whatever procedural tools are necessary to defeat this bill.”
This is 1/6th of our entire economy, which is hurting as we speak, this group is playing around with. It's outrageous that Reid is rewriting the bill behind closed doors while planning to still force a vote on this unfinished bill before Christmas. Not only does this reek of desperation, it's galling they would consider themselves capable of restructuring such a large segment of the economy when they can't get a bill written after spending most of the year on health care. Who knows what nonsense would be included.
DeMint is threatening to force a reading of the entire bill before a final cloture vote, and I pray that he does. The American people are opposed to this health care reform and someone must do something to stop this horrific reform from becoming law.
UPDATE: The Hill reports Sanders withdrew his amendment:
"The day will come, although I recognize it’s not today, when the U.S. Congress will have to vote to stand up to … all those who profit every single year off of human sickness,” Sanders said. "That day will come."
The amendment would have extended Medicare coverage to all who wanted it. The program currently serves people from the ages of 65 and up.
The program is also on track to bankrupt the United States of America but who can worry about little details like that.
Via Memeorandum comes this report from the AP detailing Senator Coburn's 33 hour protest in the Senate after his provision requiring reports be made available to lawmakers and the public was dropped from a $33.5 billion measure funding energy and water projects.
Perhaps it is me but I could swear that right about this time last year we were hearing the word transparency being tossed around by the Democrats undies at a Tom Jones concert. At least Senator Coburn is pressing the issue. Grinding the Senate to a halt was a particularly brilliant move. Coburn's protest called attention to the Democratic amnesia on transparency that caused them to drop his provision requiring reports be made available to lawmakers and the public. Five days would seem like a reasonable amount of time to post something online, wouldn't it? Thus far we have seen none of that from the Obama administration or the Democratically controlled House or Senate.
Surprisingly enough, no one wanted to comment on the record as to why the provision was stripped. An aide answered the question on the condition of anonymity - no seriously:
The top House negotiator, Rep. Ed Pastor, D-Ariz., didn't recall why his side insisted that the Senate drop the transparency provision. But a Democratic aide said later that there is concern that making every report public automatically might cause agencies to be less candid in their dealing with the Appropriations Committee. The aide required anonymity to speak candidly.
It's not unusual to hear the words anonymity and candidly from this most transparent administration evah. I hope Coburn presses the issue on transparency and lets the public see a health care bill before it is rammed through like the stimulus.
