January Porker of the Month Named
Senator Ben Nelson (D-Nebraska) has been named by Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) as its Porker of the Month for January. In making their announcement, CAGW wrote in their press release:
“Sen. Nelson furnished the pivotal 60th vote for cloture on December 19, 2009, allowing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) healthcare bill to come to the Senate floor for final passage. Nelson held out until he was able to parlay his vote to secure, among other perks, a permanent exemption for Nebraska to the Medicaid expansion in the Reid bill, saving the state between $59 million and $281 million. The deal has been dubbed the “Cornhusker Kickback.” The federal government will cover most of the states’ additional Medicaid expenses until 2017. According to The Heritage Foundation, the cost of benefits and administration for the expanded program will cost the states between $32.2 billion and $60 billion through 2019.
“In the immediate aftermath of the Cornhusker Kickback, Sen. Nelson stated that he had been under pressure from Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman (R) to negotiate the deal. However, Gov. Heineman denied that assertion, saying that “Under no circumstances did I have anything to do with Senator Nelson’s compromise…The responsibility for this special deal lies solely on the shoulders of Senator Ben Nelson.” The senator then scrambled to send a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) asking that the language be removed, followed closely by a claim that the carve-out was always meant as a “placeholder” so that, eventually, all the states could get the federal government to cover their Medicaid costs, a very expensive proposition. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) remarked in a December 19, 2009 Politico article that Nelson may have done the “‘other 99 senators a favor because the federal government is paying for the entire Medicaid expansion through 2017 for every state…When you look at it, I thought well, God, good, it is going to be the impetus for all the states to stay at 100 percent [after 2017]. So he might have done all of us a favor.’”
CAGW summarized the awarding of their dubious award, writing: For his Cornhusker Kickback boondoggle, classless congressional CYA behavior, and opening the door to a congressional stampede to try to fully federalize one of the most wasteful government-run healthcare entitlement programs ever conceived, Sen. Ben Nelson wins the dubious title of CAGW’s January Porker of the Month.” Well done, CAGW!
Voice your complaint, and call Sen. Nelson's office on Capitol Hill, (202) 224-6551.