PAYOFF: Ben Nelson Gets a Basket of Goodies, Senate Democrats Get 60 Votes For Health Care Reform.
Also paid for: Bernie Sanders. Why not? It’s your money they’re buying votes with, not theirs.
UPDATE: Thoughts from Prof. William Jacobson.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Megan McArdle: “No bill this large has ever before passed on a straight party-line vote, or even anything close to a straight party-line vote. No bill this unpopular has ever before passed on a straight party-line vote. We’re in a new political world. I’m not sure I understand it.”
Obama won. But will this cause people to treat the bill as illegitimate, leading to tax revolts or worse? Or will people grumble and go along?
Plus this: “We’ve just increased substantially the supply of unrepealable, unsustainable entitlements. We’ve also, in my opinion, put ourselves on a road that leads eventually to less healthcare innovation, less healthcare improvement, and more dead people in the long run.” And that’s from an Obama voter.