'We Are in a Sense Being Punished for Our Own Charity'

Sometimes there's nothing more amusing than hardcore liberals realizing they've been had. How do you feel now, suckers?

The Senate health reform bill is packed with lumps of coal for New York's Christmas stocking.

Gov. Paterson, Mayor Bloomberg and other officials warned the Senate plan would:

- Force the city to close 100 health clinics.

- Blow a $1 billion hole in the state's budget.

- Threaten struggling hospitals, nursing homes and other facilities.

"It is really a disgrace and we've got to make sure that we fight before the bill is finally passed," Bloomberg fumed.

New York ended up on the short end as Senate brokers showered cash on states whose senators were among the last holdouts before Democratic leaders locked up the 60 needed votes.

New York's best hope now is emergency surgery to undo the shafting before the bill becomes final.

A health care overhaul passed by the House last month is more generous to the city and state, and negotiations over the differences start in January.

Under the Senate plan, the biggest rewards go the states that, unlike New York, have been Scrooges to the poor in need of medical care.

"We are in a sense being punished for our own charity," Paterson said Monday.

Paterson was also bitter that states like Massachusetts and Vermont, which were also generous, got last-minute deals that erase their extra costs.

Of course that charity comes with other people's money. The left is always charitable with your money. Their own? Uh, not so much.

Maybe Bloomberg and Paterson can have a chat with Chuckie Schumer about getting short-changed.

Meanwhile, another liberal Democrat also whines.

"New Yorkers will more than pay their share for increasing health coverage around the country," says the letter, which Bronx Rep. Eliot Engel wrote and expects to send today, signed by 24 members. "Yet New York will receive far less than the national average in federal relief."

This is why clear-thinking people have fled or are in the process of leaving New York. You basically have one-party rule and these nincompoops still get the shaft.

Instapundit links. Thanks!