In one of those odd moments where congressional procedure delivers a roundhouse punch to common sense, the Senate Bankruptcy Bill will actually be...The Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007. Here's why: Tax bills have to originate in the House of Representatives. But the current thinking is that the Senate should pass a bailout bill to increase pressure on the House. So they needed to find some piece of legislation that had already passed the House but had not yet passed the Senate. Hence the mental health parity bill, named in honor of Paul Wellstone, who made mental health issues a major cause during his time in the Senate. What they'll do now is basically add the whole bailout bill to the text of the Wellstone bill. As Justin Fox says, "because, you know, Paul Wellstone would totally have been in favor of bailing out Wall Street." It is a bit ironic. Though Wellstone would not have been serene about the damage the possible damage if the bill did not go through. It's really pretty hard to say where he would've come down, or what he would've forced into the final legislation. It's a sad shame that we'll never know. Related: Remember Paul Wellstone.
