The Going Rate

I draw your attention to this local story from The News Journal (Del.) to highlight one particular detail.

It seems a routine story of run-of-the-mill small-time political corruption. A local builder admits having paid $5,000 to a county councilman to ensure the approval of a new housing development. Confronted with the evidence, the councilman cuts a deal with prosecutors and admits to receiving $4,400.

Did you catch that? What happened to the other $600?

Apparently the going rate for a kickback courier is a 12 percent skim. Sweet. Somebody made $600 just for carrying a padded envelope across New Castle County. And whereas the councilman and the developer end up in court and in the paper, we never learn this guy's name and the cops don't seem interested. Nice work if you can get it.

Consider, for instance, what that 12 percent skim looks like on something like the $400 billion Medicare passed by the Senate today.

Little in this legislation makes much sense except as the result of massive bribes and kickbacks paid by health insurers and pharmaceutical companies, for whom this messy, contradictory bill will mean billions down the line. It certainly doesn't represent a good-faith attempt to provide meaningful prescription drug coverage for seniors.

So while the public is getting screwed by Congress and its corporate benefactors, we can at least take some comfort that they're both getting gouged, too, by the kickback couriers skimming their 12 percent.

UPDATE: TBogg has more on how the Medicare bill will add directly to the personal fortunes of Sen. Bill Frist and his family. (The archive link — here — freezes up my computer.)