Posted on 12/17/2009 10:31:21 AM PST by JRochelle
The path to 60 just got a lot more difficult:
In an interview Thursday with a Nebraska radio station, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) said new compromise language on abortion funding is unacceptable. “As it is right now, without further modifications, it isn’t sufficient,” Nelson told KLIN radio in Lincoln, NE.
This could be a significant blow to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s effort to line up 60 votes in the coming days for the health care bill. Nelson has said he would filibuster the bill unless the abortion language mirrored what was included in the House bill.
Even if abortion is addressed to his satisfaction, “that is not enough” for Nelson commit to voting for the bill, he said.
How bad will this get? Barack Obama hasn’t even addressed the issue of abortion with Nelson directly. That’s a pretty interesting picture of disinterest coming from the Oval Office on what is supposed to be Obama’s highest priority on his domestic agenda.
Harry Reid will have to go back to the drawing board on abortion funding, but that may not be possible. His progressive wing is already in near revolt over having to vote for a bill with no government-run plan in it. They wanted a precursor to a single-payer system; in fact, that was the entire point of the health-care reform push. Now they’re going to be asked to kill funding for abortion as well, having worked for months to build a path around the Hyde Amendment. There is no way that will get through to cloture, and no way it will pass in the House even if it did.
Nelson’s driving a stake through the heart of ObamaCare. Looks like Barack Obama has his pretext for skipping Copenhagen.
If this is anything like Liebermann and the staged medicare throwaway ‘compromise’, this is just for dramatic effect. And I tend to think it is.
“I love it when a plan comes together.”
Will Comrade 0bama accomplish what the USSR wished decades for - wipe out Offutt AFB ?
This gets funnier by the day.
They have the Presidency, a significant majority in the House, a “filibuster-proof” majority in the Senate ... and they can’t get anything done. I really don’t remember George W. Bush and the Republican Congress and Senate having this much problem in 2001.
Their liberal “coalition” is looking less-and-less like a “coalition” by the day. It ain’t a majority if you can’t even get your own party to agree on anything.
SnakeDoc
And here’s the most outrageous part: at the end of this rush, they want us to vote on a bill that no one outside the Majority Leader’s conference room has even seen. That’s right. The final bill we’ll vote on isn’t even the one we’ve had on the floor. It’s the deal Democrat leaders have been trying to work out in private’
So, who knows what abortion language will or will not be in the final bill that is voted on?
The abortion issue is going to the one of the biggest sticking points in the Obamacare bill and many moderate senators especially those who will be up for reelection next year will not vote for the bill if it has federally funded abortion in it. Congress should take the time to read the entire bill before voting on it instead of trying to rush something, anything through. If they rush pass that, there will be a revolt xext November like you wouldn’t believe and it will happen in all the voting booths of this country.
How does anybody know what’s really in the bill when nobody has read it?
Who will blink - Reid or Nelson ?
Nelson must be hearing it bigtime from Nebraska.
Has a single Senator ever torpedoed a huge Bill like this and humiliated a President of his own Party ?
It’s getting good........
I don't see how he can skip Copenhagen. If anyone in the world still likes this clown, that's where they will be.
Lessee if Reid doesn't whip up an acceptable compromise by this afternoon.
He’ll give in just in time for the weekend “news cycle” ..that way its forgotten about by monday..that’s how these terrorists work...
They know only what they are told - and do what they are told.
Well, with the exception of Senator Nelson...
heh heh heh
I really don’t remember George W. Bush and the Republican Congress and Senate having this much problem in 2001.
Republicans had major problems and could not get anything done either. I just can’t believe that these stupid people are arguing over abortion. It is a procedure that is affordable for everyone. I am thrilled that Ben Nelson is playing hard ball. Dems really should take out the abortion funding....I am 100 percent pro-life and find this actually very humorous (and I am very greatful)...at least a few children will end up alive now.
Ben Nelson is not a terrorist. He is misguided on many issues, but he sure is 100 percent correct on abortion.
that does seem to be the modus operandi. Trying to cover political butt back home, then caving to dingy H -
Playing both ends against to middle. I hope it all caves in them. They're not even honest mugwumps.
I plan on sending a Thank You note to Senator Nelson if he continues to stand his ground.
Other than that, let the rest of them eat each other. Pull up a chair and pass the popcorn.
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