Our Senate, Working Late Into The Night.

       And to think they say there's no bi-partisanship in Congress. Here's an example of two Senators working in unison. One a Democrat, Senator Max Baucus and a Republican, Orrin Hatch. Yep, during the year end fiscal cliff negotiations, the two managed to have a Senate aid slip in a provision that allows Amgen, a drug manufacturer, to evade cost cutting controls for Medicare.
       This bipartisan effort cost Medicare about $500 million. And the best part is that nobody knew it until just hours before the bill was passed. So ya see, there is cooperation between the parties. When something really important comes up, like giving a helping hand to a needy constituent, our boys in Washington are ready to help.
       Now just how does something like this little helper get started? Well, first Amgen hires a couple of former Chiefs of Staff to the Senators in question. Then these new Amgen employees go to work lobbying the two Senator's aids and also Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell.
       Still that doesn't explain why these leaders agreed to push this little goody through. I suppose that the political action committees of the three having received $68,000. $59,000 and $73,000 might have helped. In fact, you could say it's a clue as to why they made arrangements for the midnight insertion.
       Now please don't get me wrong. I think the world of these great statesmen. I think the help they provide to needy multi-billion dollar corporations like Amgen is important. Why, without such help, Amgen might be unable to give such big bonuses to management, large dividends to investors and a big pay raise to those new lobbyists. So it's only fair that Medicare pay for it.