Taking $1 From Every American

Last evening thelobbyist’s founder Nick Brown gave me the quote of the day: “So what you’re telling me is they took a dollar from every American to pay off [Senator Mary] Landrieu (D-LA) to vote for health care reform?”

In short, Senator Landrieu demanded $300 million for her vote to start debate on the Senate’s health care bill. Initially worth $100 million, her critical vote for Democrats is increasing in price. The Senate is trying to hide its bribery by claiming the money is for any qualifying ?state,” saying, among other things, that it would be states that ?during the preceding 7 fiscal years? have been declared a ?major disaster area.?” In other words, for Hurricane Katrina and Louisiana.

Can we please call our senators and kill this bill? Then, next year, let’s vote the bums out. Please. In both parties. Starting fresh is a great way to go. Or, we could always rebel. Put a government in place that represents the people, institute constitutional term limits, have transparency with every political donor required to be listed on political websites and in every office, eliminate business subsidies, eliminate bailouts and cut the waste in defense, education, Medicare and Medicaid. Oh, and put in a flat tax or, even better, the Fair Tax that Mice Huckabee has made almost famous.