Despite Reid’s continued claims that he uses his position as Senate Majority Leader to deliver for Nevada – claiming in a campaign ad just last week that he is the most “powerful Senator Nevada has ever had” – it turns out the special deal for Nevada in the original health care bill has been stripped out. As you may recall, in a September 30th speech on the Senate floor, Reid defended the deal to send additional federal Medicaid funding to Nevada and said he makes “no apologies” for helping his state – “There is not a single state in the nation that has felt the full force of the foreclosure crisis like Nevada,” Reid said.

Well, it turns out there is a state receiving a special deal in the health care bill – but it’s not Nevada.

As reported by ABC News, the state of Louisiana will receive an extra $100 million in federal Medicaid funding beyond what every other state will receive. Why? Because as ABC’s Jonathan Karl reports, “Senator Harry Reid, who drafted the bill, cannot pass it without the support of Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu.”

Considering these two news stories, the NRSC put out the following response:

“It’s often been said that Harry Reid puts the interests of Democrats in Washington ahead of his constituents in Nevada, but never before has it been so glaringly obvious. It appears Nevada’s senior Senator realized that his dreams of ramming through a $2.5 trillion government health care bill were at least one vote short, and he cut a deal, plain and simple. But we look forward to hearing Senator Reid’s explanation for why Nevada’s ‘special deal’ went up in smoke, just as a new ‘special deal’ for Louisiana magically appeared. One thing is for sure though – Harry Reid’s claims that as Majority Leader he delivers for Nevada are now as weak as his low poll numbers back home.” — Brian Walsh, NRSC Communications Director