December 23, 2009 | House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) | Permalink

All year long, the more the American people learn about Washington Democrats’ costly government takeover of health care, the more they oppose it.  Indeed a new Quinnipiac survey shows continued disapproval for the Democrats’ government-run approach.  Only 36 percent support Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) bill, while a majority (53 percent) oppose.  Opposition among Independents, at 58 percent, is even higher.  And that anger is growing as Americans find out more about Sen. Reid’s unseemly payoffs, kickbacks, and sweetheart deals that were included to buy the votes of Democratic senators.  Here’s a sampling of the reaction to these payoffs, kickbacks, and sweetheart deals in today’s papers:

• “If it could be proved that the chief executive officer of a major American corporation -- a pharmaceutical firm, say, or an insurance outfit -- had delivered hundreds of millions of dollars to the governors of two of the 50 states in exchange for two U.S. senators from those states changing their votes and defeating the proposed federal takeover of America’s medical industry, it’s not too hard to imagine the results: the perpetrator led out of his office in handcuffs by the FBI, front-page indictments and trials, commentators reviling the worst case of public corruption to be seen at such a high level in generations.  Yet when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., promised to deliver those sums to Nebraska and Louisiana (and not to the other 48, no credible claim of ‘the general welfare’ here) in recent weeks to buy off Sens. Mary Landrieu and Ben Nelson in order to line up the 59th and 60th votes needed to pass the biggest new federal boondoggle in half a century -- the Nebraska payoff coming early Saturday morning -- he didn’t even try to keep it a secret.” – “Health Care Deal Looks A Lot Like a Bribe,” Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial, December 23, 2009

• “Blanche Lincoln and Evan Bayh must feel like saps. The Arkansas and Indiana Democrats spent months caterwauling about this or that provision in the Senate health-care bill, then at 1 a.m. Monday they voted to speed its passage without getting so much as a lousy T-shirt. In Harry Reid's Senate, this qualifies as dereliction of duty, as the Majority Leader said himself on Monday in defense of his frantic deal-making to get 60 votes.” – “The Price of ‘History,’” Wall Street Journal editorial, December 23, 2009

• “In the wee hours of Monday morning, Senate Democrats passed their version of health reform in a strictly partisan 60-40 procedural vote.  It was accomplished with political payoffs that should die in conference committee but probably won’t. The tawdry use of earmarks to bury the doubts of recalcitrant moderate Democrats was a cynical display of ends-justifies-the-means horse-trading that President Barack Obama campaigned against as a senator and candidate.” – “Harry Reid Sells His Political Soul,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram editorial, December 23, 2009

• “Among the most distasteful elements were essentially the payoffs used to secure votes from senators in Nebraska, Florida, and Louisiana. The shakedowns, er, side deals provide extra funding for Medicaid and Medicare just in these states, and limits on abortion coverage demanded by Sen. Ben Nelson (D., Neb.)” – “A Health Deal is at Hand,” Philadelphia Inquirer editorial, December 23, 2009

• “New Yorkers better be ready to dig deeper into their pockets to pay off all the bribes Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., offered senators of other states to win their support for the $871 billion health reform bill.” – “Reid Payoffs,” Watertown Daily Times editorial, December 23, 2009

• “America's overused credit card, issued by the Bank of China, may have to be used one more time to pay for Reid's deals. The majority leader traded to help ensure the votes of Sens. Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu, Chris Dodd, Bernie Sanders and others representing 11 states by giving them special perks for staying on the health care bus that's about to drive us all over the financial cliff.  They may argue they weren’t bribed, but they certainly were rewarded.  The price was enormous.” – “Harry Reid Playing Santa With Your Money,” CNN column, December 23, 2009

• “With the approval rating of Congress sinking in the polls and public opinion of their health care plan going down along with it, Democrats may have done themselves one favor too many this week when they riddled the bill with special deals for individual lawmakers.  As Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., struggled to pull together his 60 Democratic-controlled votes needed to pass the bill, certain holdout lawmakers were able to carve out extra money, benefits or exemptions that senators from other states didn't get.” – “Big Payoffs to Senators on Health Bill Stokes Public Anger,” Washington Examiner, December 23, 2009

• “Sometimes there is a fine ethical line between legislative maneuvering and bribery. At other times, that line is crossed by a speeding, honking tractor-trailer, with outlines of shapely women on mud flaps bouncing as it rumbles past.  Such was the case in the final hours of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's successful attempt to get cloture on health-care reform.  Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, the last Democratic holdout, was offered and accepted a permanent exemption from his state's share of Medicaid expansion, amounting to $100 million over 10 years.” – “For Sale: One Senator (D-Neb.) No Principles, Low Price,” Washington Post column, December 23, 2009

Republicans are standing up for American taxpayers by exposing these payoffs, kickbacks, and sweetheart deals and offering better solutions to lower health care costs.  The Republican health care plan would lower premiums by up to 10 percent, cut the deficit, and consistently reduce federal spending on health care over the next two decades.  That’s the type of common-sense solutions the American people want and deserve out of health care reform.