So now, the Republicans are blocking paying doctors through Medicare in order to protect their HMO friends:

But Senate Republicans (and President Bush) don’t like the way the bill finds money for docs by cutting subsidies to Medicare Advantage, the privately administered Medicare plans.

If they needs subsidies, then, “Medicare Advantage, the privately administered Medicare plans”, are less efficient than big government, and hence are government waste, which should be abolished.

The cloture vote failed 58:40, and it needs 60 votes. Kennedy was not there because he has cancer, and McCain was not there because he doesn’t give a damn about doing his job as Senator.

When Republicans complain about earmarks, they are looking at amounts that are in total less than 1/10 of this.

I hope that the Democrats pound them mercilessly on this until election day.