Wisconsin State Journal: No pay, no go: In the Senate, a nice surprise

By FROM AN EDITORIAL IN THE WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL, Wisconsin State Journal

Last update: October 24, 2009 - 4:49 PM

A little fiscal sanity actually carried the day last week in Washington, with Wisconsin's two senators playing a key role.

Congratulations to U.S. Sens. Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl for joining 10 other Democrats, an independent and all 40 Republicans in voting down a $250 billion extension to the Medicare physician payment program.

Doctors deserve fair payment from the government for care provided to Medicare patients. Wednesday's vote would have fixed a steep shortfall in scheduled payments to doctors over the next decade.

But Democratic leaders failed to identify any way to pay for this quarter-trillion dollar expense, which would have further exploded record deficit spending. Democratic Senate leaders seemed content to spend the $250 billion off the books and then pretend the cost didn't count toward efforts to reform the nation's health care system.

Feingold and Kohl wisely stood up to their Democratic leaders and helped Republicans reject the ruse. "Government should be required to balance their budget just as Wisconsinites balance their checkbook," Feingold said.

As the debate over health care continues in Washington, voters should be wary of further accounting tricks. President Obama told the American people he would not sign any health care reform package that "adds one dime" to the deficit. But only public insistence on a fiscally responsible package will protect against more sleight of hand.

Wednesday's vote was a positive sign. Yet many votes are still to come.

Editor's note: Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken of Minnesota were not among the Democrats voting to block the legislation.

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