Senate Dems Load Crap Sandwich With Sauce
Harry Reid joined Senator Chuck Schumer today in spreading panic.
In July, Senator Schumer caused a run at IndyMac after a letter he wrote prompted the collapse by causing the run and scaring away potential acquirers.
Today, Senate Majority Leader Reid joined him.
Reid told reporters that a major US insurance company is going under:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., pressed for passage, with the alarming news that one of the country’s premier insurance companies was about to go bankrupt if the crisis was not quickly resolved.
“We don’t have a lot of leeway on time,” Reid told reporters in the Capitol. “One of the individuals in the caucus today talked about a major insurance company — a major insurance company — one with a name that everyone knows that’s on the verge of going bankrupt. That’s what this is all about.”
He did not identify the insurance company, and later in the day Reid spokesman Jim Manley said the senator was speaking broadly and not referring to anything specific.
Nice job, Harry.
In response to this news, the Democrats added a massive health care provision to the bailout package.
The Politico reported that Dems already tucked a mega-billion dollar mental health care provision to the bill:
With each permutation, the bill has steadily grown in size. Treasury’s initial plan was about three pages long. The House version, which failed, stretched to 110. The Senate substitute now runs over 450 pages. And tucked away in the tax provisions is a landmark health care provision demanding that insurance companies provide coverage for mental health treatment—such as hospitalization—on parity with physical illnesses.
Really a bill onto itself, the mental health parity measure has been a bipartisan priority for top lawmakers in both chambers but has stalled because of disagreements again over how to pay for its estimated $3.8 billion five-year cost.
The Corner has a list of earmarks tucked into the legislation.
