Amid a rumor that he would be switching his vote in exchange for a promise to be appointed administrator of NASA, Democrat Bart Gordon of Tennessee announced today that he will indeed be voting to pass the Senate plan under whatever procedure is used in the House. Gordon's statement reads, in part:

In the end, the question I'm faced with is this: will this reform be better for Middle Tennessee than the status quo? I think it will. That's why I believe passing meaningful health care reform is essential and why I have made my decision to help ensure health care is affordable for Middle Tennesseans today and for generations to come.”

Here's something to help you appreciate the irony of Gordon's statement. Just a few months ago, in October of last year, as both the House and the Senate were considering health care in earnest, the Democratic Governor of Tennessee, Phil Bredesen, wrote a letter to Gordon and to Republican Senator Bob Corker warning that the mandates included in the Democratic health care plans, if passed, would burden the already cash strapped state with an additional $750 million worth of entitlement spending.  Bredesen wrote:

Bob and Bart, the problem that we're facing is simple: by 2013, we expect to have returned to our 2008 levels of revenue and will have already cut programs dramatically - over a billion dollars. At that point, we have to start digging out - we will have not given raises to state employees or teachers for five years, our pension plans will need shoring up, our cash reserves ("rainy day fund") will have been considerably depleted and in need of restoration, and we will not have made any substantial new investments in years. There will have been major cuts to areas such as Children's Services that we really need to restore. On top of these, there are all the usual obligations to be met - Medicaid, for example, will continue to grow at rates in excess of the economy and our tax revenues. It's going to take at least a full decade to dig our way out and back to where we were prior to the recession.

In this environment, for the Congress to also send along a mandatory bill for three quarters of a billion dollars for the health reform they've designed is very difficult. These are hard dollars - we can't borrow them - and make the management of our finances post-recession even more daunting that it already is.

In other words, the mandated spending in the Democrats' health bill would further undermine Tennessee's already precarious financial situation. That's one of the reasons Bart Gordon voted against the original House bill.  But nothing has changed about the Democrats' bills since Phil Bredesen wrote this letter - except Bart Gordon's vote.

UPDATE: Wait, something else changed:

Democrats unveiling revisions Thursday to their health-care overhaul bill decided to kill the extra $100 million in Medicaid funds for Nebraska that has become a symbol of backdoor deal making. But the 153 pages of changes to the package include an additional $99 million in 2012 and 2013 for Tennessee hospitals that treat many poor people.

Retiring Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., has fought for the funds for years to bring the state's aid up to par with the rest of the country, spokeswoman Emily Phelps said. She said their inclusion had nothing to do with his announcement Thursday that he will vote for the final health legislation after opposing an earlier version in November.

So Gordon cut a special deal for $100 million for Tennessee to try and help offset the crushing $750 million in mandates Governor Bredesen warned about.

--------------------------------------------
Follow the RCP Blog on Twitter.
Become a fan of RCP on Facebook.
--------------------------------------------