Hidden Earmarks A Hallmark Of The 110th

Captain's Quarters Hidden Earmarks A Hallmark Of The 110th

One hospital, Bay Area Medical Center, sits on Green Bay, straddling the border
between Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, more than 200 miles north
of Chicago. The bill would increase Medicare payments to the hospital by
instructing federal officials to assume that it was in Chicago, where Medicare
rates are set to cover substantially higher wages for hospital workers.Lawmakers
did not identify the hospital by name. For the purpose of Medicare, the bill
said, “any hospital that is co-located in Marinette, Wis., and Menominee, Mich.,
is deemed to be located in Chicago.” Bay Area Medical Center is the only
hospital fitting that description.

Any representative of the people who proclaims to be for open government and then turns around and writes laws that are willfully hard to understand in order to sneak through funding is unfit for public office. This is plain dirty politics, if any one in congress cares about reform as much as they say they do, this has to end. The problem of course is that power and money corrupt, and while it is easy to sit outside Washington talking about all the good you will do, being in the capital changes you. You get a sip of that power, and you think that one more won't hurt.