Sen. Ben Nelson does what he does best, he doesn't stand with his own and now is saying that he's against public health care because it's too good.
Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) said Friday that he will oppose legislation that would give people the option of a public health insurance plan. The move puts him on the opposite side of two-thirds of Americans.
A poll released this week by Consumer Reports National Research Center showed that 66 percent of Americans back the creation of a public health plan that would compete with private plans. Nelson, in comments made to CQ, joins the 16 percent of poll respondents who said they oppose the plan.
Nelson's problem, he told CQ, is that the public plan would be too attractive and would hurt the private insurance plans. "At the end of the day, the public plan wins the game," Nelson said. Including a public option in a health plan, he said, was a "deal breaker."
A Nelson spokesman didn't return a call for comment.
As he so often does, Nelson said, according to CQ, that he planned to form a "coalition of like-minded centrists opposed to the creation of a public plan, as a counterweight to Democrats pushing for it."
That coalition will not include 16 Democratic senators who signed a letter calling for a public plan earlier this week, including Senate leaders Dick Durbin (Ill.) and Charles Schumer (N.Y.).
If Democrats use the reconciliation process to pass health care reform, however, Nelson's vote would not be needed, as only a simple majority could pass the legislation.
Please, not another coalition of the lame. He just thumbed his nose at the president and at the American people. Is this the best Nebraska has to offer? Hey Ben, you will be hearing from us.
On policy, I've been very impressed that President Obama is ditching the bi-partisan nonsense that was doomed to fail. The republican party is in shambles right now and are hoping that Obama and America fails. That's their game plan I think anyway. Health care is going to be a knock down drag out fight and this might be the best use of the reconciliation process. Ronald Reagan used it a number of times so it's not some arcane rule that hasn't been used since the 1800's.
