The Price of Health Care - $300 Million

Many news stories have been reporting it took a sweetener $100 million to secure the vote of Senator Mary Landrieu for Harry Reid's health care plan. Senator Landrieu has set the record straight, "it's not $100 million, it's $300 million." Here's the story from the Washington Examiner:

Facing fallout from an apparent sale of her health care vote to Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and the Democratic Caucus, Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) took a shocking approach in response to the payoff allegations: she flaunted it!

To help secure her vote, Reid included a provision in the bill sought by Landrieu to provide increased Medicaid funds for states recovering from major disasters such as 2005's Hurricane Katrina that devastated New Orleans and parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.  When the bill is closely examined, however, the provision provides immense financial support for only one state: Landrieu's Louisiana.

Landrieu defended the inclusion of the provision and said Republican critics who accuse her of selling her vote for $100 million are wrong and that she has the support of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

Then, in a statement sure to be repeated by Republicans endlessly over the coming weeks of Senate health care debate, the senator flaunted the inclusion of the provision.  "I will correct something. It's not $100 million, it's $300 million, and I'm proud of it and will keep fighting for it," Landrieu told reporters after her floor speech. "But that is not why I started this health care debate; I started this health care debate for all the reasons I just mentioned in my statement" on the floor.

The apparent purchase of the senator's vote is already garnering significant response from Republicans as well as taxpayers footing the bill for this provision.  The nickname for the provision?  "The Louisiana Purchase."