Every politician makes campaign promises that everyone knows can’t be kept. One is reminded of George W. Bush’s “Read my lips, no new taxes!” (which, of course, did not pan out to be true.) But constants like Death and Taxes aren’t quite the same thing as other platform policies. When President Obama said that he was going to require transparency in government, we believed him, and the nation elected him. Yet the back door deals march on… and they’re alive and well in the Healthcare bill. President Obama has opposed what he calls the “Cornhusker Kickback,” which requires that the Feds pay for Nebraska’s Medicaid expansion, in exchange for the supporting vote of Ben Nelson, (D, Neb). This is hardly the only special deal in the health care “reform” bill, though.
David Axelrod, senior White House adviser, recently reiterated “The president does believe that state-only carve-outs should not be in the bill.” But “the principle that we want to apply is that are these applicable to all states? Even if they do not qualify now, would they qualify under certain sets of circumstances?” Reading between the phrasing, one gets that there may be other boons for individual states, and that the White House won’t consider them to be Special Deals so long as all states COULD qualify for those benefits.