Vendredi

As President Barack Obama gets ready set to sign a federal highway bill that's being touted as a rare example of Beltway bipartisanship this afternoon, Louisiana isn't sure whether to cheer or jeer. On the highway part, we came out pretty well - getting an influx of $680 million. Same goes for federal flood insurance, which was extended for another five years. And of course there's the Restore Act, which ensures that 80 percent of BP's Clean Water violation fines come to the Gulf. Sounding pretty good so far. But, as ever, there's the little matter of health care.

Embedded in the huge bill was a huge cut to Louisiana's Medicaid funding. Over the next two years, the state will see a $859 million reduction in payments from the feds. U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu was attempting to hang onto the money, even though the feds claim the funding only got here because of an error in the drafting of the President's health care legislation. Louisiana got $4.3 billion when we were supposed to get $200 million as part of the "Louisiana Purchase," that supposedly secured Landrieu's vote on health care, the feds have said. Nevertheless, the state budgeted for that money to be there this year, so they're now scrambling to figure out how to deal with a budget that was 11 percent less than what was approved by the state legislature.

In a statement that circulated earlier today, U.S. Sen. David Vitter noted that he was the only Louisianan on the conference committee that produced the bill. In the statement, he called the bill a "triple win" for the Pelican State.

“We were able to score a real triple win for Louisiana on the Conference Committee – the Restore Act; a very pro-Louisiana highway funding formula; and stable, long-term flood insurance,” Vitter said.

However, Vitter didn't mention the health care cuts. Also noticing that omission was the state Democratic Party. They accused him of engineering the cuts to kill the state hospital system.

"Topping it all off is the prospect of seeing some — if not all — of the LSU Hospital System in North and South Louisiana shut down because the cuts that Vitter knew were coming but said nothing about. Vitter has long championed this cherished conservative dream," a statement from the Party said.