Dems Hide Earmarks in SCHIP Bill

[BrucePrime]

Despite promises by Congress to end the secrecy of earmarks and other pet projects, the House of Representatives has quietly funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to specific hospitals and health care providers under a bill passed this month to help low-income children.

Instead of naming the hospitals, the bill describes them in cryptic terms, so that identifying a beneficiary is like solving a riddle. Most of the provisions were added to the bill at the request of Democratic lawmakers.

One hospital, Bay Area Medical Center, sits on Green Bay, straddling the border between Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, more than 200 miles north of Chicago. The bill would increase Medicare payments to the hospital by instructing federal officials to assume that it was in Chicago, where Medicare rates are set to cover substantially higher wages for hospital workers.

Lawmakers did not identify the hospital by name. For the purpose of Medicare, the bill said, “any hospital that is co-located in Marinette, Wis., and Menominee, Mich., is deemed to be located in Chicago.” Bay Area Medical Center is the only hospital fitting that description.

The primary purpose of the bill is to expand the Children’s Health Insurance Program while enhancing benefits for older people in traditional Medicare. But a review of the bill by The New York Times found that it would also direct millions of dollars a year to about 40 favored hospitals, by increasing their Medicare payments.

The bill, for example, would give special treatment to two hospitals in Kingston, N.Y., stipulating that Medicare should pay them as if they were in New York City, 80 miles away. Representative Maurice D. Hinchey, Democrat of New York, who worked to get this provision into the bill, said it would allow the hospitals to pay competitive wages so they could keep top health care professionals...

ARTICLE CONTINUES...

[Bob26003]

Is this the best you can do Bruce?

So we go from being worried about being lied into a War, Bribery, Outing covert Nocs, and the illegal wiretapping of Americans etc etc,,, to fretting over earmarks....

Sounds like progress to me.

Edited August 13, 2007 by Bob26003

[Lt_Ripley]

that area of Wisconsin and Michigan are very poor.

I guess to help the poor you have to sneak it in - where as to have tax cuts to the rich ? hey no problem.

yet they could have overhauled it.

Duncan Hunter managed to pad the 2008 defense authorization bill with a little bit of his favorite pork.

One of Rep. Duncan Hunter’s (R-CA) favorite requests, the Sea-Fighter project (also known as X-Craft), built by L3 Communications Titan Group, made it into the bill. Hunter, the committee’s ranking member, requested $22 million for the project. Last year, Hunter added $25.7 million despite the Navy’s reluctance to spend money on the project, according to a Congress Daily report.

Hunter, who is running for president, secured $2 million for a skin test antigen to be research and developed by Allermed Laboratories Inc. of San Diego; $1 million for oxygen-diffusion dressings made by Oxyband Technologies Inc. of San Diego; and $8 million out of the research and development pot for a tactical e-field Buoy development program that would benefit Information Systems Laboratories, also of San Diego.

Edited August 13, 2007 by Lt_Ripley

[AROCES]

Is this the best you can do Bruce?

So we go from being worried about being lied into a War, Bribery, Outing covert Nocs, and the illegal wiretapping of Americans etc etc,,, to fretting over earmarks....

Sounds like progress to me.

Again Bob26003, what lies? Who briede who? If it's illegal wiretapping, who was the victim?

[AROCES]

that area of Wisconsin and Michigan are very poor.

I guess to help the poor you have to sneak it in - where as to have tax cuts to the rich ? hey no problem.

Why don't you be genuine with your help for the poor and make it come out of yours, Bob26003 and your liberals groups pockets instead of other peoples money.

I mean you claim to be the mainstream and the majority of americans, imagine if all you folks give twice as you normally pay in taxes VOLUNTARILY! Then you can help all the poor you want and we won't have this tug o war, right? AND YOU GET ALL THE CREDIT. Now won't that be great?

[Bob26003]

Why don't you be genuine with your help for the poor and make it come out of yours, Bob26003 and your liberals groups pockets instead of other peoples money.

I mean you claim to be the mainstream and the majority of americans, imagine if all you folks give twice as you normally pay in taxes VOLUNTARILY! Then you can help all the poor you want and we won't have this tug o war, right? AND YOU GET ALL THE CREDIT. Now won't that be great?

Why dont you be genuine and pay for the stupid War out of the Right Wingnuts pockets?

I swear, you have the logic and critical thinking skills of a bicycle tire.

Edited August 13, 2007 by Bob26003

[AROCES]

Why dont you be genuine and pay for the stupid War out of the Right Wingnuts pockets?

I swear, you have the logic and critical thinking skills of a bicycle tire.

Hey, I'm not the one who keeps asking for Tax increase or we should do this or that. I simply supported the action we took in Iraq and if our Commander in Chief decides to pull out, then I got no problem with it either.

So you be the one to ante up since you the one who wants all this pork spendings badly!

[Lt_Ripley]

Hey, I'm not the one who keeps asking for Tax increase or we should do this or that. I simply supported the action we took in Iraq and if our Commander in Chief decides to pull out, then I got no problem with it either.

So you be the one to ante up since you the one who wants all this pork spendings badly!

so where do you think the money is going to come for the debt on the war ? taxes. and they can get all of it from the morons who thought bush was right. starting with you.

[AROCES]

so where do you think the money is going to come for the debt on the war ? taxes. and they can get all of it from the morons who thought bush was right. starting with you.

Oh really? And the debt we had before was alright for it was the Democrats that spends it, right?

You call anyone else who want the money use for something else Moron? Gee, you Liberals are really so DRUNK and HIGH with Taxes(NOT YOUR MONEY) that you actually think you owe every penny of them and it's all yours to say, how much you want and where to spend them, and the rest are morons

You folks are a different species. No name for it yet really.