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Seven in

Seven Republican state attorneys general are working together to levy a constitutional challenge against the Senate health care bill.

Sens. Jim DeMint and Lindsey Graham, both South Carolina Republicans, started the effort by requesting their state’s attorney general, Henry McMaster, review a provision in the bill exempting the state of Nebraska from paying its share of Medicaid expansion costs.

It is widely believed that this was done to entice Sen. Ben Nelson, Nebraska Democrat, to vote for the bill, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, has conceded that the provision was at least a “minor point” in getting Mr. Nelson to support the legislation.

The Republican lawmakers say the move is unfair to taxpayers in other states and unconstitutionally denies them equal protection of the law.

“While South Carolina has to come up with hundreds of millions of dollars to comply with the massive new federal mandate, Nebraska does not have to come up with a single dollar,” Mr. DeMint and Mr. Graham complained in their letter to Mr. McMaster.

Now, the attorneys general of Alabama, Colorado, Michigan, North Dakota, Texas and Washington are also looking into what has been called the “Cornhusker Kickback.”

“This is a matter of law for the states’ attorneys general,” Mr. McMaster said in an appearance on Fox News on Monday. “We have banded together many times to address issues like this, but this one’s off the scale. Nobody has seen as blatant vote-buying, using the people’s money to such an extreme with no excuse at all and no rational basis for it, just saying that it was necessary to get the man’s vote. That’s not the kind of reason that the Constitution allows.”

Quoted

“You’ll find a number of states that are treated differently than other states. That’s what legislating is all about. It’s compromise.”

— Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in a press conference after the health-care bill, with the Nebraska Medicaid provision, passed earlier this month

Nelson tanks

Sen. Ben Nelson, Nebraska Democrat, may have struck a great deal for his state, but a new poll shows Nebraskans are rejecting it.

A Rasmussen poll released on Tuesday found only 17 percent of Nebraskans approve of the Medicaid benefit provided to their state in exchange for Mr. Nelson’s vote. And, most Nebraskans, 64 percent, oppose the legislation overall.

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