Feingold, Kohl Invoke Fiscal Restraint - GOP Whines

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Last week, Wisconsin Senators Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl voted against the Medicare Physician Fairness Act of 2009.

Examiner Excerpt:
The bill, which failed to pass in the Senate by a 53-47 vote, would have repealed the current Medicare physician payment formula. The formula has been much criticized because it, in effect, reduces reimbursement payments to physicians each year.

The senators felt the proposal lacked the necessary safeguards to avoid blowing a larger hole in the deficit and it was eventually shut down when they stood up with a bi-partisan majority for fiscal restraint. In the meantime, Feingold is proposing a series of spending cuts and other provisions that he said would reduce the deficit by $500 billion in 10 years.

JG Excerpt:
(Titled: Kohl, Feingold buck party on Medicare payments)
Republicans seized on Feingold’s proposal, saying the senator was masquerading as a “deficit hawk” despite his support for the $787 billion stimulus measure this year.

In the mix of these related budget dealings, instead of embracing the move as an opportunity to relight whatever remnants remain of bi-partisanship, Republicans had a conniption fit while members of the right-side media paint Feingold and Kohl as "defectors."

Republicans will find a way to say no even when you might agree with them.

On the Medicare Physician Fairness Act, it appears Democrats (not Republicans) who voted no with Feingold generally felt the bill was not PAYGO friendly because it would have added to the national deficit without creating a way to pay for it first.