Senator Ben Nelson "negotiated" some changes to the Senate Health bill that have were needed to gain his support. One change stipulated that federal money wouldn't be used to pay for abortions, while the others are nothing but freebies for Nebraskans. Here's a brief summary:
Nelson secured full federal funding for his state to expand Medicaid coverage to all individuals below 133 percent of the federal poverty level. Other states must pay a small portion of the additional cost. He won concessions for qualifying nonprofit insurers and for Medigap providers from a new insurance tax, and was able to roll back cuts to health savings accounts.
"I know this is hard for some of my colleagues to accept and I appreciate their right to disagree," Nelson told reporters at the Capitol, of the many changes made at his behest. "But I would not have voted for this bill without these provisions."
If you read my articles regularly, then you know that I strongly oppose the Senate health care bill. With that said, if I was a Senator who supported it, I would likely vote no due to the favorable treatment Nebraska's citizens will receive. If every other state is making a contribution, then why shouldn't Nebraska? It's because Senator Ben Nelson is the last hold-out, so he figured he could hold the bill's supporters hostage. There's a lesson for U.S. Senators: Pretend you oppose a bill for a particular reason (such as abortion), then get the change you pretend to care about along with some rewards for your state that you can use at election time.
Since the rewards Senators like Ben Nelson extract will likely be brought up by him at election time to prove how "effective" he is, you could argue that he is deriving quite a benefit from his deal. His actions are unethical and go against everything a legislator should stand for. A competent Majority Leader would have made the change to part of the bill related to abortion, but not the unfair give-aways for his constituents. Then, if he continued to oppose the legislation, he could call him on it. Of course, Harry Reid's failure to do this makes you wonder what types of goodies the people of Nevada will be receiving.
Comments
Ben Nelson is a coward and a socialist. He is loyal to the party only and the people of Nebraska need to send him packing.
I live in Nebraska. I have never been politically active. That has changed with the betrayal by Ben Nelson. I will actively work against him the next election cycle. I will attend every type of protest against him that I can even if it involves driving long distances. Ben Nelson has created in me a hate and disgust of Federal Government, one of the most corrupt governments on the face of this earth. It is too late to affect anything at the Federal Level. The crooks, liars, and scum like Ben Nelson must be stopped at the local level by empowering our states to stand up to the unconstitutional take over by the Federal Government. Our state representatives live in our communities and we will elect only the ones with enough nerve to stand up to Federal thugs.
Sorry to took this event to wake you up Patrick! We need to rid the country of these traitors. We elected them to be good steward of our county and they have taken advantage of the power. Its time to have a clean sweep of the slate and start from scratch! Have a happy holiday!
Words cannot express how disappointed I am in Senator Nelson's decision. It is clear that government for the people by the people is nearly dead. The only hope is that the citizens of this country will get involved in order to preserve the constitution and the bill of rights. Otherwise, the ideals set by the founding fathers shall be lost to power hungry politicians cutting deals that sell our soveriengty out.
That is sovereignty (sorry for the mispelling). It is an important principal in the ideal of freedom. The ideal of freedom is why this country was founded and why so many people have died to preserve the freedom of the U.S.A. The time has come for the citizens of the U.S.A. to wake up and assume their rightful position as the founding fathers envisioned in the constitution and bill of rights.
Email sent to Senator Nelson on his website (do it too!):
I am deeply disappointed by what the media is reporting as your decision to support this disasterous health care reform bill for reasons that will hurt many families in the entire U.S. just to preserve the interest of a small few in Nebraska. I have family from Nebraska who spent many enjoyable summers at Lake McConaughy waterskiing.
Why you would sell the entire country out on an unpopular view that really does not solve the root of the problem...medicare fraud and out of control medical malpractice law suits that keep our doctors hostage to huge insurance bills? Why do
you choose to demonstrate decisions that personify a desire for power that has the founding fathers rolling in their graves? The spirit of the U.S.A. citizens shall prevail. The U.S.A. citizens have the blood of the founding fathers in their souls, and the ego and desire for power that politicians like you possess will not prevail. You have just sold you
My last sentence was cut off. What I said to the Senator is that he just sold his soul to the devil.
Soon to be ex-Senator Harry Reid could have used 'reconciliation' to get around Lieberman and company if he wanted to. He could have used it to get a public option in the Senate bill to go along with the public option that was put in the House bill a little while back. Obama did backroom deals to help scuttle the public option long before the Senate scuttled the public option.
Now it all comes down to the 60 Democrats in the House of Reps who said that they would NOT support any reform bill that did not include a public option.
A bill must now be hammered out between the House and Senate. It will either contain a public option or it won't. Those 60 House Democrats will either keep their word or they won't.
If they go back on their word and they vote yes on a final bill that does not include a public option, then voters should toss them out in November 2010 or primary them before then, if possible.
Wanna know the scary part??
After seeing what Nelson got from holding out, wonder how many Democrats will hold out after the bill comes back from the House for the final passage??
Many states will be getting freebies I'm sure.
Washington's disregard for what the people are telling them has gone over the edge. Healthcare for the people is a much more touchy situation than Washington has dealt with since the invention of income taxes.
And there will be hell to pay come November if a bill makes it to Obama's desk.
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