This Day in Corrupt Government: Nancy Pelosi Gets 1 of Every 5 Obamacare Waivers

It's possible that San Francisco's Nancy Pelosi will be best remembered as the face of the noxious politicking that resulting in the passage of the awful Obama health care reform in 2009. She's is, after all, unfondly remembered for asking "Are you serious?" when a reporter asked whether an individual mandate to buy insurance was constitutional, and for brushing aside criticism of Congress's lack of transparency by saying "We have to pass the bill to find out what's in it." Well, a report in today's Daily Caller is only adding to her Obamacare legacy: apparently, of the 200 new waivers the Obama administration granted to businesses wanting to put off compliance with the law's mandates, 38 went to swank restaurants, hotels, and nightclubs in Pelosi's district. That's right; apparently Pelosi's constituents have found out what's in the bill, and they don't like it. More importantly, it further dispels any lingering doubts as to whether the law was really intended to pay off key constituents rather than reform the US health care system. It says a lot about the political process that one-fifth of the waivers are going to a postage-stamp-sized district in San Francisco (we won't even get into the 31 waivers that labor unions have received) at a time when most of the country is understandably anxious about the crippling effects of the law's mandates.

(Hat tip to many, many people in our Twitter feed.)