Last week, the Senate defeated a proposed bill instigated by Sen. Harry Reid, the Democratic Senate majority leader, to fund increased payments to physicians by Medicare. The estimated cost of the proposed bill was $257 billion over 10 years.
Sen. Reid did not want the cost of that bill included in health care reform proposals. The defeated bill would have been funded through deficit spending. It was defeated by a vote of 53 to 47. All 40 Republicans and 13 Democrats, led by Sen. Evan Bayh, of Indiana, voted to defeat the bill.
David Broder, a longtime columnist for The Washington Post, correctly pointed out similar tactics by Republicans in the past. He said, “When Republicans were in control for eight years, they refused to raise taxes to pay for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq or the costs of the new Medicare prescription drug benefit. And they did not have the excuse of facing the worst economic slump since the Great Depression.”
There is no question in our mind that both Democrats and Republicans “play games” with our money to fund favorite programs or policies. That is exactly why our national debt is out of control and has been for some time, far too long in our view. Both parties pay lip service to “transparency,” then try these stunts along with earmarking and other legislative maneuvers.
The courage of Sen. Bayh and his 12 Democratic colleagues to thwart their leadership and side with Republicans to defeat this bill shows, in our view, a glimmer of hope that Congress is becoming wise to the legitimate concerns of Americans that spending must be accountable and transparent. We encourage Republicans and other Democrats to hold the line in this regard.
Finally, we are not opposed to paying doctors a fair wage to perform their vital services. But to do so with federal dollars, priorities must be established. Doctors must compete with other vital programs in the full glare of public knowledge to determine how very limited resources should be committed.
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