Ben Nelson say's YES GIMME GIMME

[Navy1960]

Sen. Ben Nelson (Neb.), the final Democratic holdout on health care, was prepared to announce to his caucus Saturday morning that he would support the Senate reform bill, clearing the way for final passage by Christmas.

"We're there," said Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), as he headed into a special meeting to announce the deal.

Democratic leaders spent days trying to hammer out a deal with Nelson, and worked late Friday night with Nelson on abortion coverage language that had proved the major stumbling block. But Nelson also secured other favors for his home state.

Asked if he was prepared to support the bill, Nelson said, "Yeah."http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/19/AR2009121900797.html?hpid=topnews

Frankly this is not a huge surprise, that this bill would pass.

 

[Navy1960]

Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman sent Sen. Ben Nelson a letter today asking him to vote against the health care bill and to join Republicans in a filibuster of the bill.

Nelson (D-NE) is one of the most precarious health care votes in the Democratic caucus.

Heineman told Nelson he is "the 60th vote" and called the bill an "unfunded mandate."

Nebraska Governor Urges Nelson To Oppose Health Care | TPMDC


One by one they all cave, I wonder what his state got out of the deal, we all know La. got 300 million more, so it remains to be seen what Nebraska gets.

 

[rightwinger]

Where's the booty for my State? We voted for healthcare, we should get something too

 

[Navy1960]

Thats the point here rightwinger, this whole thing has turned into a circus and tell me this, if your a state that didn't get these perks , that basically opens the door for all sorts of legal challenges. Which by the way I think this bill is going to get anyway and will most likely not survive.

 

[David Duke La]

The minute this bill is signed by Obama, the emergency rooms will be flooded with people who believe they are covered immediately.
And the hospitals will be powerless.

The effects of this will be immediate.

 

[Neotrotsky]

Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman sent Sen. Ben Nelson a letter today asking him to vote against the health care bill and to join Republicans in a filibuster of the bill.


One by one they all cave, I wonder what his state got out of the deal, we all know La. got 300 million more, so it remains to be seen what Nebraska gets.

It is being reported:


Due to the bill increasing Medicaid costs:

"That will be worth at least hundreds of millions of dollars in federal cash for Nebraska … for the first three years. After that, Nebraskans get as screwed as the rest of the country."

and

"And what about that abortion coverage? Nelson caved, as one can read in the published version, via Patriot Room:"

New language in the bill-

"If Congress fails to renew the Hyde Amendment for just one year, this language will become moot. This version will lose none of the progressives, because they know they can just kill the Hyde Amendment renewal now to eliminate the problem."

 

[Navy1960]

You are all aware that the Nebraska Gov. sent a letter to the Sen. asking him NOT to support this bill because of the burden it will put on his state in the form of unfunded mandates. So much for listening to the folks back home.

Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman sent Sen. Ben Nelson a letter today asking him to vote against the health care bill and to join Republicans in a filibuster of the bill.

Nelson (D-NE) is one of the most precarious health care votes in the Democratic caucus.

Heineman told Nelson he is "the 60th vote" and called the bill an "unfunded mandate."
Nebraska Governor Urges Nelson To Oppose Health Care | TPMDC

 

[Zona]

i heard this bill will kill granny. Stop social security and take away the ability for women to vote.

 

[rightwinger]

i heard this bill will kill granny. Stop social security and take away the ability for women to vote.

If thats the case...I am against it

 

[Navy1960]

You didn't heard that from me, however it is a bad bill, zona, and it does not even have the very things democrats wanted in a reform bill. So bascially the only reason some are supporting it is because their team is, regardless of how bad the bill is.

 

[PatekPhilippe]

i heard this bill will kill granny. Stop social security and take away the ability for women to vote.

The board's Nazi chimes in.....

 

[Zoom-boing]

Every pol has their price. Looks like tens of millions was Nelson's. Guess this is his lucky day.

Nelson, D-Neb., said he made his decision after winning fresh concessions to limit the availability of abortions in insurance sold in newly created exchanges, as well as tens of million in federal Medicaid funds for his home state.

Officials said the federal government would pick up Nebraska's entire cost of a Medicaid expansion in the bill. Other states will have to begin picking up a portion of the added expanse beginning in 2017.

Senate Dems reach 60 vote threshold on health bill - Yahoo! News

 

[Navy1960]

You do realize that a deal like that will kill this bill in in any Supreme Court fight,

16th Amendment

The Congress shall have power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises [ . . . ] but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States

The other issue your dealing with here, is an individual can make the claim that they are being unequally treated under the law. Take for example this , a state is forced to lay off fire and police in order to comply with the unfunded mandates in the bill, where in another state because the Federal Govt. is offsetting the costs of state Medicaid they do not. This bill is rife with constitutional issues and is going to have a tought time passing them all.