According to the Blog Wire, we posted at exactly the same time. :)

Thanx for the heads up on the Dems that voted with the Pigs.
Just more Scum to replace with real Democrats.

I never thought Heath Shuler would turn out to be such a punk.
Oh well, I guess some Dems prefer to spend their careers on their knees. They will soon be searching for jobs.

"The mind is like a parachute, it only works when it's open."

Assuming it passes in the Senate, with 225-204, they can't override a veto.

The $47 Billion expansion comes from 45 cents/pack increase in the federal tax on cigarretes, so the article says. So, smokers would get a double-whammy in Tennessee, right? Is there any unfunded part of this bill, money the state has to come up with? Who would manage this new program in Tennessee?

To help pay for the SCHIP increase, Democrats dipped into federal payments to Medicare HMOs, which they argue drive up premiums for the elderly in traditional Medicare by inflating the cost of care. Officials estimate the government pays an average of 12 percent more to these private plans than it does for traditional coverage.
...
10 Democrats — including conservatives whose districts have high concentrations of seniors participating in Medicare HMOs — broke with their leaders to oppose it.

What is the deal here? Anyone have the specifics?
Why do some seniors have Medicare HMOs vs traditional Medicare?

Medicare HMOs are a sinister Republican/DLC plot to privatize Medicare by attracting healthier seniors away from traditional Medicare and into private plans, funded by the govt. Once the social solidarity built into traditional Medicare is destroyed, it will be easier to kill the whole program. By the way, it costs the govt. more to fund these private plans than to provide traditional Medicare; it's just another gift to the insurance lobbies, who line the politicians' pockets so handsomely.

I'm glad to see the Dems trying to at least partially defund these things; they're a horrible scam against seniors and everybody else.