It's pretty easy damn hard to figure out why Dan Lipinski voted no on the house bill on Sunday.
The graph to the left shows congressmen, excluding retirees, voted for the bill based upon the percentage of the vote Obama received in their congressional district in 2008, according to statistician Nate Silver.
Basically: if a congressman's constituents voted for Obama, the congressman voted for the health bill. Silver breaks it down:
All 12 Democrats running in a place where Obama received less than 40 percent of the vote decided against the bill, whereas 195 of 202 running where he received a majority voted for it (including 64 of 64 in places where Obama had at least 70 percent of the vote).
Take a quick guess what percentage of the vote Dan Lipinski's 3rd district gave to Obama?
Yup. 35%. Hmm. 64% Seems that makes Lipinski one of only two Dems nationwide who voted no in that percentile bracket. Makes even less sense once you take into account another tidbit: under the system he voted for, Lipinski would be hard pressed to find an insurer willing to cover him, given his own battle with diabetes.
