Harkin: Senate Bribes "Small Stuff"

I wish somebody would send me some of that "small stuff".

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, responded Tuesday to widespread criticism that Democrats only garnered the 60 votes needed to defeat Republican stalling tactics on the health reform bill by catering to self-interest, saying Democrats are focusing on the big picture; "trying to cross a demarcation line."

Harkin dismissed deals dubbed vote-buying by GOP senators as "small stuff" that distracted Americans from the primary focus of the overhaul bill.

"We have to keep our eyes on what we're trying to do here. We're trying to cross a demarcation line," Harkin told "Early Show" co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez. "On one side is health care as a privilege, on the other side is health care as a right. With these votes, with the vote that we'll take before Christmas, we will cross that line finally and say that health care is a right of all Americans."

Health care already is a right in the United States. What isn't a right is health insurance. Even the way Harkin describes the situation is dishonest.

Any person can go to any emergency room in the country and they will be treated. It's the law. What isn't in the law is a requirement that someone else pay for it. That's what the Democrats are trying to enact now, though their efforts will end in failure.

This bill will not do what it says it will do. It will not cut costs, it will not insure everybody, and it will not improve health care in this country. It's a sham.

And sprinkling taxpayer money like pixie dust through the bill to bribe senators into voting for it confirms that this bill isn't about health care at all, but about taking money from one sector of society and giving it to another, with the government scooping vast amounts off the top.

It's corruption, pure and simple.