Health-care reform and the mixed economy
Commentators on both the right and the left have griped about the many conditions in the Senate and House health-care bills that were added to win the support of special interest groups or specific congressmen. The right, for example, has decried the dealing as “cash for cloture,” while the left has assailed the individual mandate as an insurance industry coup.
And indeed, the bills are ripe with provisions that benefit some at the expense of others. Among those in the Senate bill alone (see this article for a more complete list):
- $300 million to Louisiana for the vote of Mary Landrieu
- $100 million to a Connecticut hospital to help the sinking poll numbers of Christopher Dodd
- A permanent expansion of federal Medicare payments to Nebraska (estimated value, $100 million) for the vote of Ben Nelson
- An excise tax exemption for longshoremen in exchange for the support of their union
- A 10 percent tax on tanning salons—added at the behest of the American Medical Association in place of a proposed a 5 percent tax on cosmetic surgery
- The exemption of Florida senior citizens from Medicare cuts for the vote of Bill Nelson
- $600 million in Medicaid benefits to Vermont for the vote of Patrick Leahy
Where does the money for these favors come from? From the only place it can—the pockets of U.S. citizens who have created that wealth in the first place. Read the rest of this entry »

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