Health provider tax still held hostage; dependents concerned

Oregonian (editorial):

Provider tax held hostage, Day 10.

For a second week, Oregon state Senate Republicans are refusing to release the health provider tax, which collects $750 million from providers and then draws twice as much from the feds. This raises the mathematical question:

If you're holding $2 billion hostage, how much do you want in ransom?

And are there that many small bills in circulation?

Read the full article here. Discuss below.