December 19th, 2009 • 10:36 amWill He Cave? UPDATE: He Caved
Throughout the health care debate, the Democrats have whined about the GOP being the “Party of No.” Thus far, Ben Nelson has been consistently saying no, too. Now it appears that he’s put a price at which he can be bought. Based on this AP article, it sounds like he might accept a Landrieu-like deal to cover Medicaid expenses:
Several officials said Nelson was seeking to ease the impact of a proposed insurance industry tax on nonprofit companies, as well as win more federal funds to cover Nebraska’s cost of treating patients in Medicaid, the state-federal health care program for the poor. These officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks, said the administration and Democratic leaders had offered concessions on those points.
Thus far, the difference has been that he isn’t changing his position on federal funding of abortion:
Nelson has spoken openly of seeking stricter abortion curbs, and a proposed compromise on that issue has won the tentative support of Catholic hospitals. But the National Right to Life Committee objected during the day, issuing a letter that said it “in no way improves the highly objectionable provisions of the…bill that authorize subsidies for health plans that cover elective abortion, and that authorize federal mandates for private health plans to cover elective abortion.”
BREAKING NEWS: Sen. Reid apparently figured out what it took for Sen. Nelson to flip:
Sen. Mary Landrieu got the “Louisiana Purchase.” Sen. Ben Nelson got the federal government to pick up most his state’s future Medicaid tab…forever. As part of the deal to win Nelson’s support, the federal government will fund Nebraska’s new Medicaid recipients. It’s a provision worth about $45 million over the first decade.
This isn’t health care reform. This is Reform In Name Only, aka RINO. This is looking like a Christmas tree. It’ll be interesting to see how many more concessions the House will push for in conference committee. It’s practically guaranteed that they’ll want their cut of the pie, too, ‘pie’ that’s coming from our pockets.
This isn’t a good deal for Nebraskans, something that the Nebraska GOP should remind people of when Nelson’s next up for re-election. Nebraskans’ insurance costs and health care costs will increase as a result of this legislation. The budget deficits will undoubtedly increase because of this legislation.
Only in Washington, DC, can legislation raise taxes, increase costs and explode the deficit and still be called reform with a straight face.
Technorati: Medicaid, Ben Nelson, Christmas Tree, RINO, Mary Landrieu, Louisiana Purchase, Deficits, Health Care, Democrats, Elections
Cross-posted at California Conservative
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Pingback by California Conservative » Blog Archive » Will He Cave? UPDATE: He Caved • 19Dec2009 @ 11:56 am
By God Harry Reid used the constitution to his advantage in order to get this vote. Nelson’s concern was that he didn’t want to force Nebraska to pay for abortion. Since the tenth amendment and this compromise gives Nebraska the right to say no on abortion Nelson can try to claim with a straight face that he stopped abortion in Nebraska while keeping it alive in California and states like Minnesota where our Supreme Court forced us to pay for it.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
Comment by walter hanson • 19Dec2009 @ 1:38 pm
I’ve talked with several GOP activists in Nebraska. These activists were telling me that Sen. Nelson should start planning his retirement, that their att’y gen. will run against him next time & defeat him if he runs for re-election.
If there’s a lesson to be learned from all this, it’s that people aren’t in the mood for too-clever-by-half politicians.
Simply put, Sen. Nelson’s concessions bought his vote but it also bought Nebraskans higher taxes, higher insurance premiums & higher health care costs. He can tell people that he got concessions till he’s blue in the face. IT WON’T MATTER. They’ll just know that their insurance premiums & their taxes are alot higher.
Comment by Gary Gross • 19Dec2009 @ 2:38 pm
We’re doomed. Reid and Pelosi will get together, and probably already have, and Pelosi will simply accept the bill over in the House. No conference committee, no wrangling, just a straight 218 votes needed, and off it goes to Obama to sign. Our hopes at this point are two: First, that a forced reading of the bill drags the process out into next year, and second, that this snowstorm keeps one of these Democrat Senators from getting to the vote.
Comment by J. Ewing • 19Dec2009 @ 4:57 pm
Gary, I agree entirely with you that the situation involving the obstructionist - for a price - Dem senators from Louisiana and Nebraska is shameful. If only the GOP were not so lockstep against true reform it would not be needed to cut offensive deals with the likes of Landrieu, Nelson, and Lieberman.
However, the truth is the GOP is being as it is, and these people are holding up things - in a different sense than the GOP “read the amendment” holds things up, timewise.
It is bad. I think the three of them need to be challenged in the primary by populist-progressives.
If Ned Lamont has another run in him, he would win this time. After that stupidity of Lieberman, at the RNC event.
Comment by eric z. • 19Dec2009 @ 5:58 pm
Frankly, I think that there will be 2 Republican senators representing Connecticut after the 2012 elections. Dodd’s history after his corruption was exposed. Lieberman is hated by the Nutroots, meaning whoever loses the GOP primary this year will have a great shot at picking Lieberman off in 2012.
As for obstruction on the GOP’s part, the truth is that their amendments in the Senate were strategic. They showed who put a higher priority on loyalty to party leadership than on representing their constituents. The Democrats ‘moderates’ have been exposed as liberals just waiting for their payoff. Ben Nelson got a couple concessions but the fact is that Nebraskans will pay higher premiums & higher taxes because he accepted his thirty pieces of silver.
The American people now know that there isn’t a single Democrat who won’t abandon their principles for trinkets. Good luck selling that in an election year.
Comment by Gary Gross • 19Dec2009 @ 9:40 pm
Jerry, Enough with the doom & gloom. What Sen. Nelson’s sellout means going forward is that we have to remind people that the Democrats voted in lockstep with their leadership & that their votes made health insurance more expensive, tha their votes increased taxes at the worst possible time & that it increased health care costs.
While it’s looking like we lost this fight, that doesn’t mean there isn’t another phase to this, namely, using these votes against Democrats in the next couple elections. That includes wrapping the tax increases against the middle class around President Obama’s neck in 2012.
When the GOP retakes the House next year & when we make a strong run at retaking the Senate, it’s their obligation to pass legislation that forces the Democrats to vote against middle class tax cuts & force President Obama to veto middle class tax cuts. It’s also their responsibility to try eliminating much of the crap that this health care legislation puts in place. If Democrats want to filibuster it, that’s just another thing we’ll use against them when they’re next up for re-election.
Comment by Gary Gross • 19Dec2009 @ 9:48 pm