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Senator Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) has caved in to pressure from Democrats in their proposed government takeover of the health care industry, settling for language that allows use of federal taxpayer dollars to fund abortion. But was the abortion issue the reason he objected to the bill at all? Now that he’s caved on the language and will vote to allow federal funding of abortion, people are left to wonder. The House-passed bill includes language that would repeal the McCarran-Ferguson Act which exempts insurance companies from federal anti-trust legislation, which facilitates insurance company monopolies within each state. Yesterday afternoon, the insurance...

Former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is headed to Nebraska. Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, will headline an Omaha rally Sunday afternoon to try to persuade U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson to change his mind on health care reform. The rally will be at 3 p.m. at the Civic Auditorium Music Hall, 17th Street and Capitol Avenue. Doors will open at 2 p.m. The rally was put together quickly Saturday after Nelson, a Nebraska Democrat, said he would support a health-care reform bill in the Senate. Republican U.S. Rep. Lee Terry of Omaha is expected to attend, as well as state...

Updated December 18, 2009Democratic Holdout Controls Fate of Senate Health Care Bill FOXNews.com Saturday: Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska is a Democratic moderate who voted to begin debate on health care legislation. (AP Photo) As Democrats race against the clock to pass a sweeping health care bill before Christmas, Sen. Ben Nelson, the only known Democratic holdout, has positioned himself to play Santa or the Grinch.The Nebraska Democrat is pushing to include air-tight restrictions on abortion funding in the bill, but that's not all he wants.Because of the $465 billion in Medicare cuts included in the Senate bill, Nelson wants...

The Senate is heading toward a Christmas Eve vote to pass landmark healthcare legislation, but instead of holiday cheer, Democrats and Republicans are digging in for trench warfare. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is determined to finish work before the Christmas holiday and has set a schedule that would end with a final vote on the evening of Dec. 24. “We’re going to finish this healthcare bill before we leave here for the holidays,” Reid declared on the floor Thursday. But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has told colleagues that he will not give any ground on procedural...

WASHINGTON — Don’t touch that C-SPAN dial. The Senate is planning a midnight session tonight as Democrats and Republicans fight fire with fire over health care reform. Tonight’s session is not even about health care but rather the annual Department of Defense spending bill. Senators have a 1 a.m. vote on the Pentagon bill. But with just one week to go before the Christmas deadline on health care, neither side is making this easy. Democrats have little room to spare as the health bill must go through a series of potentially time-consuming procedural votes in coming days if Senate Majority...

Nancy Pelosi: "Thank God" Senate Bill Funds Abortions Washington, DC -- In yet another comment that will draw guffaws from pro-life advocates, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is thankful to God that the Senate bill include massive abortion funding. Pelosi also claims she has enough votes to pass a pro-abortion health care bill in the House, though that is disputed. http://www.LifeNews.com/nat5781.html

n a conference call with Pennsylvania reporters Saturday, Specter compared the passage of the health care bill to the Civil Rights Act. He said tough legislative achievements take considerable time. "The Civil Rights Act of 1957 was necessary, although it did not go as far as people would have liked then, to get the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Again, it did not go as far as people would have liked, but we did find the Voting Rights Act of 1965. We have to find times when we have to build incrementally on these matters,'' Specter said. ~snip~ pecter said...

The Senate clerk has finished reading the text of the manager's amendment to the chamber's healthcare bill. After roughly seven and a half hours of reading, the clerk concluded reading the 383-page manager's amendment to the bill, which was submitted by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) earlier today. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) forced a reading of the amendment earlier today in a bid to string along the Senate healthcare debate. In the interim, Senate Democrats announced an agreement with Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) to secure the necessary 60 votes to move forward with the bill. They also released...

Video: "Now - for the first time - there is a clear majority in the Senate that's willing to stand up to the insurance lobby and embrace lasting health insurance reforms that have eluded us for generations. Let's bring this long and vigorous debate to an end." Oooooooobama! A CLEAR MAJORITY!!! A clear manufactured, arm-twisted majority at best!

There was an air of unreality in the United States Senate when I entered the Capitol building on Wednesday to record some PJTV interviews. I sat down with five U.S. senators to discuss the imminent future of the long-embattled health care bill. We are approaching the eleventh hour for Sen. Harry Reid’s (D-NV) slowly dying health care legislation, which he insists will be passed before Christmas. This is the same bill that was to be enacted last summer, then by August, then after Labor Day, and then before Thanksgiving. Now it may be a Christmas present for the country. The...

Here is video of GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell calling the Democrats' Senate Health Care Bill a "legislative train wreck." McConnell was reacting to news that Democrats now have the 60 votes to invoke cloture and move to a vote on final passage on the bill. They hope to do so on Christmas Eve. McConnell said the bill will lead to higher taxes, and that it includes "permissive language" on government-funded abortions. He said the bill will cut back on Medicare, Medicaid, and Hospice funding. McConnell pointed out that the bill now contains a special deal for Medicaid funding...

Ben Nelson says that he knows who started the rumor, and that it may be embarrassing if/when that info comes out. Says, no one threatened him or offered him ANYTHING for his vote. He's says the abortion issue is not the only thing stopping him from supporting the Senate bill.

Quite an explosive leak! I wonder how this will affect things? It is certainly a thuggish and dangerous thing for Obama to play with National Security over this craptacular idea of socialized medicine. Quite a desperate move. According to a Senate aide, the White House is now threatening to put Nebraska’s Offutt Air Force Base on the BRAC list if Nelson doesn’t fall into line. Offutt Air Force Base employs some 10,000 military and federal employees in Southeastern Nebraska. As our source put it, this is a “naked effort by Rahm Emanuel and the White House to extort Nelson’s vote.”...

NTERACTIVE GRAPHIC Health-Care Reform: How The Bills Stack Up Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid unveiled a revised health-care bill Dec. 19 that includes concessions on abortion and other issues needed to secure a 60-vote Democratic majority to overcome a Republican filibuster. The Senate is expected to vote Christmas eve.

I'm sure you've all heard this one before, but really this must be the battle cry for the next 3 years. 2010 will be a democrat massacre now that passage of the abomination is all but guaranteed, but it will not be enough because we will not have the numbers to override Zero's veto. Hence, it will again be the battle of cry of Sarah Palin's presidential campaign. Wonder how long it will take for the first lawsuits to start going through the courts on this bill. Insurance companies can probably start suing very soon. Taxpayer standing to bring suit...

Senate Democratic leaders say last-minute changes to the health care bill include giving nonprofit health insurance companies an exemption from the excise tax on insurers, a revision pushed by Sen. Carl Levin, who is a major recipient of campaign contributions form mega nonprofit Blue Cross Blue Shield. The excise tax or fee on health insurance companies was expected to bring in $6.7 billion to help pay for the nearly $1 trillion bill, but the complete exemption for nonprofits sought by Mr. Levin, Michigan Democrat, would cut the revenue in half. "The health insurance fee proposal in the pending Senate bill...

WASHINGTON – Congressional budget scorekeepers say the latest Democratic health care bill would cover 94 percent of eligible Americans while reducing the federal deficit. The Congressional Budget Office said Saturday the changes announced by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid would cut the deficit by an additional $2 billion, bringing the 10-year total reduction to $132 billion.

This bill can't be read and digested in two days. Call Congress to demand we get 3 days to read the bill.

With the clock ticking toward a self-imposed Christmas deadline, Senate Democrats scrambled on Friday to win over a potential defector and line up the 60 votes needed to pass a broad healthcare overhaul.Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid and others spent hours negotiating with wayward Democratic Senator Ben Nelson, an abortion rights opponent who refuses to pledge his support until he gains stronger restrictions on the use of federal funds to pay for abortions.

Abortion Deal In Sight In Senate Healthcare Negotiations Barbara Boxer is 'optimistic' about reaching 60 votes after all-day talks with Majority Leader Harry Reid and Democratic holdout Ben Nelson. The GOP redoubles threats to slow business to a crawl. By Janet Hook and Noam N. Levey December 18, 2009 Reporting from Washington - With a critical vote looming this weekend, Senate Democratic negotiators closed in Friday night on a deal to persuade a lone Democratic holdout -- Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson -- to back the party's healthcare bill after a marathon day of negotiations. That would give Democrats the 60...