While discussing an amendment to make drug companies pay more to the government as part of the health-care reform bill, Sen. Tom Carper (D., Del.) said:

I’ll tell you — if someone negotiated a deal with me and I agreed to put up say, 80 dollars or 80 million dollars or 80 billion dollars and then you came back and said to me a couple of weeks later — no no, I know you agreed to do 80 billion and I know you were willing to help support through an advertising campaign this particular — not even this particular bill, just the idea of generic health care reform? No, we’re going to double — we’re going to double what you agreed in those negotiations to do. That’s not the way — that’s not what I consider treating people the way I’d want to be treated.

The folks at the liberal blog FireDogLake even have video:

The folks at FireDogLake are outraged that Carper wants to keep the cost to drug companies at $80 billion; apparently, he thinks a secret deal is a deal, while the FDL folks think Congress shouldn’t be held to any limitations in a deal that was negotiated in secret with just a few members and/or the Obama administration.

Could we spare a little outrage for the fact that the White House and perhaps members of Congress apparently negotiated a deal on legislation in exchange for running millions of dollars in ads? How is this not bribery and a violation of campaign-finance laws?