Posted by
Billy email MADBillyD@aol.com on Monday, November 23, 2009 12:07:28 PM
President Barack Obama’s
mission to reform US healthcare
vaulted another legislative hurdle over the weekend, but the scramble to secure
his own party’s votes sheds light on the messy compromises that may be needed to
get it to the finish line.
Fissures between liberal and centrist Democrats cracked open on Sunday in the
aftermath of a procedural
vote, which paved the way for the estimated $848bn (€570bn, £514bn) draft
Senate bill to be debated on the floor. Leaders hope there will be a vote on the
bill by Christmas. If passed, the House and Senate versions will have to be
mashed together.
Ben Nelson: 'When I saw the bill I said: 'This can be amended''
If this weekend is anything to go by, it will not be a pretty process. All
Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents voted to push the bill forward –
creating a filibuster-proof majority of 60 – but some of those votes came far
from quietly. A group of centrist Democrats, unhappy about elements of the bill
such as a public insurance option, managed to wring concessions from the
leadership in return for their acquiescence.
In what wags have already dubbed the “Louisiana Purchase”, Mary Landrieu was
offered at least $100m in extra federal money for her state. Ben Nelson won the
omission of a provision that would strip health insurers of their anti-trust
exemption. Blanche Lincoln won more time.
(OK so Ben Nelson wants to change this bill but he voted for the bill which he doesn't agree with on Saturday night. As a tax payer and voter from Ben Nelson's state I will not forget how he voted this last Saturday night. He can no longer call himself pro life. He also voted for taxes to go up. The Omaha news paper in an editorial said this. "Sen. Ben Nelson, one of the most closely watched swing votes, should vote
no. Why? Because Reid’s proposal, like that approved in the U.S. House,
would place immense burdens on small and medium-sized rural hospitals in the
Midlands. It would not prevent further steep increases in health care
costs.It would, however, shunt billions in new costs onto state
governments. And its budget savings at the federal level depend on empty,
misleading promises of fiscal discipline that Congress has shown it’s utterly
incapable of fulfilling. If anyone doubts the threat to Nebraska,
especially its rural areas, remember that it was Reid himself who tried to get a
side deal to hold his own state of Nevada harmless from the increased Medicaid
expenses that would raise costs steeply for state governments — and thus state
taxpayers.Those considerations need to occupy the very forefront of
Sen. Nelson’s thinking as he ponders how to vote on the proposal. Is he more
worried about making sure that the vital interests of Nebraska are protected, or
about pleasing Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi? Well Sen. Nelson along with all the other Democrats told us by their vote what matter most to them and it wasn't the people who put them in office. Read more on this issue Splits
widen for Democrats over health reform....)