The NY Times had an interesting piece about the Senate earmarks they found snuck into the Manager's Amendment. The most surprising one was that Max Baucus came out for expanding Medicare-- to the residents of Libby MT.
^SEN. MAX BAUCUS, D-MONT., chairman of the Finance Committee and a key architect of the legislation, put in a provision to help the 2,900 residents of Libby, Mont., many of whom have asbestos-related illnesses from a now-defunct mineral mine. Under Baucus' provision, which never mentions Libby by name, sickened residents could sign up for Medicare benefits.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
That is nice for the folks in Libby, after all, who could deny that these folks deserve universal, single payer health coverage? But perhaps Senator Baucus should have widened his gazed a bit and considered that maybe there are sick people who need affordable coverage even outside the fine state of Montana.
I have more details about the bill (and a suggestion for the House Democrats) after the fold. Just added a poll to ask who's heard of Tommy Douglas (father of Canadian Medicare and grandfather of Kiefer Sutherland).
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