Senator Mary Landrieu may have secured Louisiana a $300 million Medicaid supplement within the Senate health care bill when she voted in favor of cloture.While a provision within the bill is geared towards states currently recovering from major disasters, “when the bill is closely examined…the provision provides immense financial support for only one state: Louisiana.”

Although some, including Landrieu, downplay the significance of the cloture vote, Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) points out “fully 97 percent of bills that win a vote to proceed eventually become law.”

Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute points out: “Old-fashioned vote-buying is one thing, but what is one to make of supposed fiscal conservatives who voted for a bill that would increase federal spending by $2.5 trillion over its first 10 years of actual operation (2014-2023), paid for by 15 new or increased taxes?”

Do not be fooled into believing Landrieu is helping the state of Louisiana. If the proposed healthcare legislation were to be signed into law, the $300 million allocated to Louisiana will pale in comparison to the long-term debt Louisiana citizens will ultimately shoulder. Landrieu has done our state no favors by displaying that she, like so many other politicians in the state of Louisiana, has a sweet spot for cash.

And consider this comparison between the actual Louisiana Purchase of 1803 with what has come to be known as the modern day Louisiana Purchase of 2009:

Purchase of Louisiana territory + Cancellation of Debt = $15 million in 1803 for all of the Louisiana Purchase

In today’s dollars, this would be equivalent to $212 million (calculated from Minneapolis Fed historical CPI estimates).

This is $88 million less than it cost to purchase Senator Landrieu’s vote Saturday, which came with a price tag of $300 million.