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Just called my Senators, Lemieux and Bill Nelson Re: healthcare. Lemieux will vote no and Nelson's office says he has not decided. Keep calling.

I just got off the phone with Sen. Bill Nelson's office. He still on the fence regarding the trillion dollar plus 2,074 page Harry Reid's healthcare bill. Please, please call one of his offices and let his staff know that our country cannot afford to add another trillion dollars to our already $1.6 trillion dollar budget deficit. Office telephone numbers: Washington 202-224-6551 Omaha 402-391-3411 Lincoln 402-441-4600

Senate Republican aides say that Harry Reid has scheduled the first vote on his health-care bill for Saturday night for 8:00 p.m. after 10 hours of floor debate. Ed Morrissey notes that registered voters oppose the House health care bill 51 percent to 35 percent; a poll done by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling shows registered voters oppose "President Obama’s health care plan" 52 percent to 40 percent. All eyes are on Democratic senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska to see if he will vote Saturday night on the motion to proceed. Nelson is threatening to filibuster the final bill...

Senator Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska, says he is not sure he is ready to help a Democratic health care proposal clear even the most preliminary hurdle: gaining the 60 votes his party’s leaders need to open debate on the measure later this week. Two of his fellow Democrats, Senators Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, are proving tough sells as well, raising the prospect that one or perhaps all three of them could scuttle the bill before the fight over it even begins on the Senate floor. “I think what is most important for me...

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) told CNSNews.com that because he is not a constitutional scholar he was “not going to be able to answer that question” of where specifically the Constitution authorizes Congress to mandate that individuals purchase health insurance. “Specifically, where in the Constitution does Congress get its authority to mandate that individuals purchase health insurance?” CNSNews.com asked Nelson. “Well, you know, I don’t know that I’m a constitutional scholar,” said Nelson. So, I, I’m not going to be able to answer that question.” The senator then turned away to answer another reporter’s question.

The chairman of Nebraska's Republican Party predicts that Sen. Ben Nelson's decision to back sweeping health care legislation will be his downfall. "I think this is the end of his political career in the state of Nebraska,” says Mark Fahleson. On Saturday, the state party launched a Web site, givebentheboot.com, to collect funds to oust the Democrat in the 2010 election. Nelson said earlier Saturday that he decided to support the measure after winning 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 Nebraska....

At one end of the majority leader's office, Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), the antiabortion senator whose support was crucial to health-care legislation, huddled with White House staff in a conference room. At the other end, Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the chamber's leading advocates of abortion rights, hunkered as far from Nelson as possible, in the office of Reid's chief of staff. Shuttling between the two parties Friday afternoon and evening were Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). Desperately trying to find a compromise, Schumer put his head in his hands early...

WASHINGTON — Ben Nelson has spent his life negotiating big deals, but never one this big. Now he must face the consequences of his decision. It may make him popular at the White House and among some of his fellow Senate Democrats, but his announcement brought swift, scathing denunciations from Republicans — in Washington and in Nebraska. Nebraska GOP chairman Mark Fahleson declared Nelson's decision “the death knell to his political career in Nebraska.” In contrast to the charged atmosphere that has surrounded the health care debate, Nelson has sought to maintain a calm demeanor and downplay the pressure he...

Obama the hypocritical eco-loon ... Obama the Neo-"Com" ... Obama beech-slapped by Sarkozy during a U.S. diplomacy lesson ... and other awesome PhotoChop work by Jamie.

For those who wish to get on the list, feel free to FReepmail writer33. If you wish to send one yourself to your Senator or Senator Ben Nelson, follow the link to find a singularized version at the blog site I sent to my Senator. Make sure to FReepmail writer33 with your name for those that can. Don't put your name out on the open forum. As you know that would make you vulnerable to any whack job on the internet. The letter goes straight to Senator Nelson and is not for public consumption.

Senate Defeats Nelson Amendment to Stop Abortion Funding in Health Care Washington, DC -- The Senate on Tuesday voted 54-45 to defeat the Nelson amendment that would have removed the massive abortion funding from the Senate government-run health care bill. With the defeat, pro-life advocates will unite behind a concerted effort to defeat the entire health care bill. http://www.lifenews.com/nat5748.html

The White House meeting Tuesday between President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats has raised expectations that they have nailed down 60 votes for the health care bill. But as he prepared to leave for the White House with other senators, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) told POLITICO the deal wasn't done.

Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson dropped his anti-abortion amendment into the Senate health care debate this afternoon, essentially lifting the language from the House version that so angered the left. Nelson, a staunch pro-life advocate, partnered with fellow Democratic Sen. Bob Casey and several Republicans to offer the measure, saying it’s necessary to ensure no federal dollars are spent on elective abortions. “Most Americans, even some who support abortion, do not want taxpayer money to be used for abortions,” Nelson said in his floor speech. “We should not break with precedent on this bill.” Nelson said the amendment would bar women...

Proposed changes to the U.S. Senate's pending healthcare reform bill include measures targeting industry profits and taxes, and a move to ensure health insurers spend a certain amount on medical care, according to a document released on Saturday. The changes, proposed as a group of amendments, must be approved by the Senate before they can be added to the massive legislation that lawmakers are struggling to finish before Christmas despite delaying tactics by Republicans and a severe snowstorm in the nation's capital. Democrats appear to have pulled together the 60 votes needed to pass a final bill. The taxes are...

A leading women's group called on senators on Saturday to defeat its healthcare reform bill. The leader of the National Organization for Women (NOW) excoriated the language in the health bill curtailing federal support for insurance plan covering abortions, which was inserted to win the 60th vote of Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.). "The so-called health care reform bill now before the Senate, with the addition of Majority Leader Harry Reid's Manager's Amendment, amounts to a health insurance bill for half the population and a sweeping anti-abortion law for the rest of us," NOW President Terry O'Neill said in a statement.

But this wouldn’t be Congress’s first historic mistake. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff of 1930 to “buy American” sounded like a good way to protect jobs by keeping out cheaper foreign products. Historians agree it was a mistake, setting off waves of retaliatory tariffs and making the Great Depression worse.

Let's face it FRiends, if the unconstitutional healthcare bill passes, the socialist coup d'etat will have advanced well beyond the point of no return! There is nothing in the constitution that authorizes this illegal federal power-grab and plenty that forbids it. If the Obama/Reid/Pelosi Marxist attempted coup pulls this off without the people resisting to the hilt, then they'll have no restrictions whatsoever on implementing the rest of their Liberty killing Marxist agenda. America will be no more. The whole idea of our constitution is to severely restrict the federal government to only its dozen and a half expressly listed...

In Congress’s upper chamber, a Virginia fox may be the one to deliver the knock-out uppercut to Obamacare. Quiet, cunning, and independent, Sen. Jim Webb (D., Va.) has been on the sidelines for much of the Senate’s health-care debate. Instead of ranting, like Bernie Sanders, Webb has been mulling legislative language in his office for weeks. Neighboring Senate staffers whisper that Team Webb is having a real tough time shuffling the senator out of the office to make appearances on the glad-handing circuit. It seems the man just wants to sit, study, read, and think — strange priorities in the...

As the Senate health care debate enters crunch time, the pressure from all sides continued to grow today, with Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., right in the middle. His spokesman quickly dismissed a report by conservative columnist Michelle Malkin that Nelson was even being threatened with “closure of an air force base,” presumably Offutt Air Force Base, which is south of Omaha and home of U.S. Strategic Command. Malkin also said Nelson has been promised a “bribe bigger than Sen. Landrieu's.” That's a reference to Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Democrat and one of the last holdouts on the vote to...

WASHINGTON -- The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of right-to-life organizations in all 50 states, strongly opposes the abortion language contained in the "manager's amendment" filed today by U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (Nv.). Reid intends to press for Senate approval of the language during the days immediately ahead, without allowing an opportunity for any revisions to be considered. The following statement may be attributed to NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson: "The manager’s amendment is light years removed from the Stupak-Pitts Amendment that was approved by the House of Representatives on November 8 by a bipartisan...