If Obamacare Was So Good, Then Why Did Obama Have To Bribe His Own Party To Pass It?

If I bribe a congressman with my own money, that’s a crime. If Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid bribes one of their colleagues with my money, then that’s politics as usual. Sunday evening, after a process that would have put Otto von Bismarck off of his sausage, the United States House of Representatives, which has yet to demonstrate that it possesses the competence to run a lemonade stand, seized control of one sixth of the US economy. And the dirty trio accomplished this using a combination of bribes, threats and lies that will be recorded in infamy. Clearly they wanted their names in the history books, but it’s likely that history’s final judgment will be harsh.

The world’s second oldest profession is now only distinguishable from the first in that practitioners of prostitution are more honest. Politicians still pretend that they possess virtue, while prostitutes market their experience.

Michigan’s pro-life poseur, Democrat Bart Stupak, was only the last to sell his soul to Obamacare. After weeks of cheap theater regarding his supposedly principled opposition to publicly funded abortions, he flipped his vote to “yes.” Just hours earlier, he boasted that the Obama Administration had awarded three grants totaling $726,409 for airport maintenance and improvements in his home district. Not only is Stupak unprincipled, but he’s a fool. Ask Nebraska senator Ben Nelson how much love he won from his constituents for selling his vote.

The entire process was an unseemly and corrupt exercise in bribery and thuggery. It’s the Chicago way. This must be the new style of politics that Barack Obama promised during his presidential campaign.

Vermont’s Patrick Leahy won extra Medicare funding for Vermont in exchange for his vote. Vermont’s other senator, Bernie Sanders, held out for $10 billion to fund one of his pet projects, community health centers. Once he got his treat, Sanders was immediately transformed from a solid “no” vote to an enthusiastic “yes” vote.

Ben Nelson (D-Nebraska) and Carl Levin (D-Michigan) won exemptions for non-profit insurers in their states and of course, Nelson held out for an even bigger prize, the “Cornhusker Kickback” which underwrote Medicaid in his state.

Connecticut senator Christopher Dodd’s vote was secured with a $100 million federally funded hospital in his state.

The auction for Montana senator Max Baucus’s vote was won with a special provision for employees who had been exposed to asbestos while working in a specific vermiculite mine in Libby, Montana.

The Democratic senator from Florida, Bill Nelson, won a $5 billion dollar grandfather clause for Medicare Advantage enrollees in his state.

Democrat Mary Landrieu of Louisiana got $300 million for her vote. Barack Hussein Obama insisted that the kickback she got could go to any state, including Hawaii which had just endured an earthquake, revealing himself as less geographically literate than CNN’s Rick Sanchez, who can’t distinguish between the Hawaiian Islands and the Galapagos Islands. It also exposes him as ignorant of law he claims as his own. Landrieu’s Louisiana Purchase was so narrowly written that no state other than Louisiana could possibly qualify.

But not all congressmen risking defeat could be bought with such kickbacks. More realistic congressmen who knew that nothing could mollify their constituents and save their seats held out for plum jobs with the Obama Administration, including the directorship of NASA and ambassadorships.

In his interview with Fox News’ Brett Baier, Barack Obama expressed his contempt for those who argued that rules were being trampled. What he doesn’t understand or doesn’t care about is that process and rules are what make us a government of laws and not a government of men. That’s an essential difference that protects us from tyranny.

It’s appropriate that Nancy Pelosi saw fit to appoint Congressman Alcee Hastings (D-Florida) to a prominent position on the House Rules Committee. He has the unique distinction of serving in the Congress that impeached him for corruption when he was a federal judge. He declared Saturday that there were no rules in Nancy Pelosi’s House of Representatives. “When the deal goes down, all the talk about rules, we make them up as we go along.”

For those of you who have never been to Chicago, it’s a strange town. Its residents know that they are overtaxed and that the political machine that rules the town is hopelessly corrupt. But they vote the machine back in every election. It’s the Chicago Way, and it’s coming your way.