Rural Oregon congressman ask for bribe to vote yes

Am I being too harsh? In this climate, no frigging way. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) announced today that he was planning on voting no on the current health care legislation unless they “fix it.”

He’s looking for more aid in the form of increased Medicare spending in rural areas. DeFazio happens to represent a rural area of Oregon. Will President Obama step up and get Democrat leaders to change the reconciliation act to ensure more cash gets poured into Oregon’s 4th district?

Only time will tell. Hat tip to Ed Morrissey at Hot Air. From Fox News, with my emphasis in bold.

DeFazio announced his opposition shortly after Ohio Rep. John Boccieri, also a Democrat, announced that he will switch his vote to yes, temporarily putting Pelosi within one vote of what she needs. …

DeFazio, who voted for the bill last year, complicated things for Democratic leaders. But he indicated he could still change his mind again.

“I’m a no unless they fix this,” he said, referring to what he sees as insufficient Medicare spending in rural areas.

Symptom of the bloody disease people!

Morrissey notes …

Say what you will about the ObamaCare debate, but it has had at least one effect — we’ve learned the names of a lot more Congressmen than in the past.

I’m not exactly certain this is a good thing. More press for these congress-critters is exactly what they want … notoriety and power.

I’d prefer we hear less about the congress-critters and we learn more locally about our representatives at the state level and – heaven forbid – our town council members and school board members. That is where the power should lie.

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Steve McGough

Steve's a part-time conservative blogger. Steve grew up in Connecticut and has lived in Washington, D.C. and the Bahamas. He resides in Connecticut, where he’s comfortable six months of the year.

4 Comments

  1. donh on March 19, 2010 at 10:42 am

    This is a key danger to the Slaughter House Rules…It gives representatives a chance to double dip. First they get bought off on the vote for the original bill. Now a second round of illegal bribes and pay offs for votes is taking place because the Slaughter Solution creates a side car effigy of the original bill that can be porked up in ways impossible to  the  legal  constitutional process of finalizing a bill into law.



  2. Dimsdale on March 19, 2010 at 1:00 pm

    I keep looking and looking, and I just can't find any documentation giving our "representatives" to take bribes and flaunt the will of the people.

     

    A classic case of "taxation without representation" with a higher and higher likelihood of these bozos producing the same results.



  3. dom on March 20, 2010 at 9:09 am

    you imply that he voted for this bill, flip flopped for $$ and will hold out unless he gets his "bribe".

    actually…from the blog "oregonlive"

    While the House dealt with the Medicare reimbursement issue in a way that satisfied DeFazio, the Senate bill did not. And the final House reconciliation package adopts the Senate approach.

    so he plans not to approve this bell because (from the same blog).

    The Medicare reimbursement issue has been around for literally decades.  Hospital rates were set years ago based on historical trends, resulting in big disparities from state to state. Oregon, in essence, has been punished with low reimbursement rates because it had a less costly health care system.

    I'm not saying Difazio is right, but his actions don't appear to be anywhere near as underhanded as you portray.



  4. Dimsdale on March 20, 2010 at 1:23 pm

    DeFazio got his bribe….



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