Nelson's Price

The Weekly Standard ^ | December 19, 2009 | by John McCormack

[MaestroLC]

Politico reports:

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.

Also from John McCormack...

Nelson Agrees to Abortion Funding in at Least 13 States?

Harry Reid has released the manager's amendment that Ben Nelson has reportedly agreed to vote for, meaning that the Senate bill has 60 votes. The abortion language includes the phony segregation of funding language that was rejected in the House. It would allow individual states to opt out of the abortion-funding program--in other words, the default position is to pay for abortions; states would have to pass legislation to not fund abortions. But states where public abortion-funding is mandated by state court rulings would be required to pay for abortions:

‘‘(1) NO PREEMPTION OF STATE LAWS REGARDING ABORTION.—Nothing in this Act shall be construed to preempt or otherwise have any effect on State laws regarding the prohibition of (or requirement of) coverage, funding, or procedural requirements on abortions, including parental notification or consent for the performance of an abortion on a minor.

There are 13 states where the state supreme court has required public abortion funding according to this map from the ACLU (assuming it's up to date). Four states have decided through their legislatures to pay for Medicaid abortions. So Ben Nelson is going to allow federal tax dollars to pay for abortions in California and New York?

[Salvation]

Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of Liberty.
- Thomas Jefferson

Senator Ben Nelson stands in the eye of the storm in the Health Care Reform Bill Debate.  What an exceptional man!   We all admire and respect his fortitude and resolution.   

It's a time to reflect on the historical fact that a Virgin, years ago, gave birth to a child who still impacts our society today.  Anyone who believes in Christ celebrates Christmas.  And today, we have a man standing up for the right of that very child to be born.  This is a very inspiring time that we are living in.  I hope and pray, as I know you volunteer patriots do, that he prevails.

So, here's a great ad being played in Nebraska.

www.newsmaxstore.com/contribute/lav/index.cfm

Let's all call Senator Ben Nelson and ask that he filibuster this Health Reform Bill that he hasn't even been able to read:

Senator Ben Nelson

(202) 224-6551

[No Left Turn]

I cannot think of a Democrat who isn’t, and precious few Republicans who are not.

The argument that there's no difference between the two parties, and those that buy it, are key reasons we will have Obamacare by Ground Hog day.

"Good thing we didn't vote that McCain in." You can keep saying that on the way to the re-education camp. Our children are going to pay for this political temper tantrum many on the right have directed at our own.

If you're on the right and you failed to vote in the last election, you are as guilty for this travesty as Ben Nelson.

[Mariner]

Remember: They still have to go to conference committee to craft a bill that a majority of dims in the house can vote for...AND STILL get 60 votes in the Senate.

Once the Senate passes their version, they are still less than 1/2 way home.

[WOBBLY BOB]

http://www.grassfire.com/1122/offer.asp

[Williams]

Nelson accepted something that PERMITS federal funds for abortion. Pretty pathetic sellout.

[FreeReign]

I have been visiting several prominent liberal sites for their comments sections, and I can guarantee everyone here that they are livid and angry at Nelson, Reid, Dems, and especially Obama. They feel sold-out. It is genuine.

If the libs at the prominent liberal sites knew what was in the bill, they would love it.

The bill will destroy the private insurance companies leaving the government as the only health insurance "choice".

[metesky]

This whole fiasco is a prima facie case for repeal of the 17th Amendment.

[Mouton]

I have arrived at the point where I hate our government.

[Psalm 144]

Republicans do not equal conservatives. They never have, they never will.

[Jim Robinson]

Yup.

[moose2004]

I have a question. Do any think it’s possible that Reid eliminated the government run option and the 55 - 64 Medicare buy in (plus making some modest adjustments to the abortion language) simply because his and Pelosi’s plan all along was to add those items back into the final conference committee bill because they have 218 votes in the House and at least 50 in the Senate who will support it?

[MaestroLC]

Remember: They still have to go to conference committee to craft a bill that a majority of dims in the house can vote for...AND STILL get 60 votes in the Senate.

Yes, exactly right.

A House-Senate conference will try to merge the two versions of the bill (which is certain to spark lots of fights, etc.).

Then the House will vote on the conference committee version.

Then the whole Senate filibuster-cloture process will be repeated over the conference committee version.

And even if Obama gets to sign it, GOP could win in 2010 & 2012 and strip the guts out of the bill. Also, the courts will have their say.

We are still a long way from the end of this fight. Stay vigilant!

[metesky]

Hello, Land of the Sleaze, Home of the Knave.

[Psalm 144]

My favoite part in this general sequence is when the dictator and his wife in Romania were put against a wall and machinegunned by their own troops.

[victim soul]

Wednesday, May 03, 2006
We are knee-deep...
“We are knee-deep in a culture of death. ... Look, in this advanced democracy, in the year 2000, is it our crowning achievement that we have learned to treat people as things?

Our moment in history is marked by a mortal conflict between a culture of life and a culture of death. God put us in the world to do noble things, to love and to cherish our fellow human beings, not to destroy them. Today we must choose sides.” (”Today” could be any day...)
~ Congressman Henry Hyde, during his floor debate remarks pushing for a ban against Partial Birth Abortion in 2000 ~

Wednesday, April 12, 2006
When the time comes...
When the time comes as it surely will, when we face that awesome moment, the final judgment, I’ve often thought, as Fulton Sheen wrote, that it is a terrible moment of loneliness. You have no advocates, you are there alone standing before God and a terror will rip through your soul like nothing you can imagine. But I really think that those in the pro-life movement will not be alone. I think there will be a chorus of voices that have never been heard in this world but are heard beautifully and clearly in the next world and they will plead for everyone who has been in this movement. They will say to God, “Spare him because he loved us,” and God will look at you and say not, “Did you succeed?” but “Did you try?”
~ Henry Hyde ~

[oiler]

Weather Report Update: It is going to rain Holy Hell in 2010-2012.

[Munz]

I am voting EVERY one out
we need a clean slate

[depressed in 06]

He’s a cheap whore.

[Obadiah]

A man and a woman meet in a bar.

The man goes up to the pretty woman and whispers to her that he’s very wealthy and offers her a million dollars to sleep with him.

The woman agrees.

In a soft whisper to the woman, the man asks her if she sleep with him for $20 bucks.

The woman responds by slapping the man in the face and asking him what kind of girl he thinks she is!

The man says, “Well, we’ve established the fact that you’re a whore, now we’re negotiating the price.”

We’ve established that Sen. Ben Nelson is a political whore, they were just negotiating his final price.

[FreeReign]

We are still a long way from the end of this fight. Stay vigilant

I appreciate your optimism and you are right there is still a long way to go.

But having seen Lieberman, Landrieux, Nelson and about 12 other red state senators fold, it's not hard to imagine that they will all fold again, both in the House and in the Senate.