Top Newsmakers-Employee Benefits 2009: Mary Landrieu
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In 1803, the United States signed a treaty with France that became known as the Louisiana Purchase and paid $15 million to secure a territory that roughly doubled the size of the new nation. To win the support of Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., to allow debate on health care reform legislation, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., agreed to include another $300 million in Medicaid funding for Louisiana. Washington wags dubbed the provision the new Louisiana Purchase. Sen. Landrieu, who had been mum in the days preceding the Senate floor vote on whether to proceed to debate the bill, was unapologetic. “I am not going to be defensive about asking for help in this situation,” she said on the Senate floor. But Sen. Landrieu said the inclusion of the special-interest provision was not the reason she supported moving the legislation to floor debate. The real reason, Sen. Landrieu told her Senate colleagues, is that the “cost of health care is bankrupting families and is bankrupting our government. We cannot afford the status quo.”
