Ben Nelson Agrees To Vote for Health-Care Bill
The deal is cut. Women's right to legal abortion? Subject to state legislative lottery! Buh-bye!
The bill will go to conference committee, but it's unlikely that the House will change that much, because Ben's holding their constitutional rights and duties at gunpoint:
Sen. Ben Nelson (Neb.), the final Democratic holdout on health care, announced to his caucus Saturday morning that he would support the Senate reform bill, clearing the way for final passage by Christmas.
"We're there," said Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), as he headed into a special meeting to outline the deal.
Democratic leaders spent days trying to hammer out a deal with Nelson, and worked late Friday night with him on abortion coverage language that had proved the major stumbling block. Nelson also secured other favors for his home state.
Under the new abortion provisions, states can opt out of allowing plans to cover abortion in insurance exchanges the bill would set up to serve individuals who don't have employer coverage. Plus, enrollees in plans that do cover abortion procedures would pay for the coverage with separate checks - one for abortion, one for rest of health-care services.
Nelson secured full federal funding for his state to expand Medicaid coverage to all individuals below 133 percent of the federal poverty level. Other states must pay a small portion of the additional cost. He won concessions for qualifying nonprofit insurers and for Medigap providers from a new insurance tax. He also was able to roll back cuts to health savings accounts.
"I know this is hard for some of my colleagues to accept and I appreciate their right to disagree," Nelson told reporters at the Capitol, of the many changes made at his behest. "But I would not have voted for this bill without these provisions."
It's a sad day when it is "Breaking News" that a Democrat is voting with his fellow Democrats.
* There are two types of Republicans: millionaires and suckers.
"Mugsy's Rap Sheet": Recording history for those who seek to rewrite it.
It would be a far better day to hear of a Democrat with the conscience and courage to vote against this tyrannical piece of treachery.
The gateway bill to neo-feudalism.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
"I know this is hard for some of my colleagues to accept and I appreciate their right to disagree," Nelson told reporters at the Capitol, of the many changes made at his behest. "But I would not have voted for this bill without these provisions."
Dear Senator Nelson:
Fuck you
"Having a deal" means bad things more than good things in today's Senate.
The filibuster under the current rules essentially gives the President's veto power to 200 other people who are free to use it for the most petty reasons. This means that it as difficult as overriding a veto to keep radically opposing viewpoints from degrading a law. You can't dismiss people with conflicts of interest. EVERY VIEWPOINT MUST BE SATISFIED until every bill is a useless Frankenstein monster that serves mostly the money interests. . which is the one thing that they always seem to agree on.
Funny how that works out.
What an arrogant SOB.
and when did the citizens of nebraska have
more rights than the rest of us. fuck nelson
and nebraska. fuck the senate for violating
constitutional law protecting women's rights
to abortion.
this country is sinking deeper in regressive
bullshit daily.......if you give into the lowest
of the criminal dumbing down of America, you can
bet the next demand they will make is going to
be worse and will diminish more minority rights....
just watch the continued and growing rape of
the middle and poorer classes by the rich elite
in this country..
America is going to lose its democracy if it
has not already done so.
We are ruled by the big corporations: Big oil, Big PhRMA, Big insurance----every single Republican and more than half the Democrats are beholden to their corporate masters for their presence in the Congress. Until someone, somewhere, sometime passes a law that elections must be publicly funded, nothing is going to change. And with 5 hard-core conservatives on the Supreme Court, the ordinary citizens of America are pretty much screwed. I have always been somewhat of an optimist as to the future of this country, but it is getting harder and harder to have any hope for change. I thought Obama would be that change, but I have been sorely disappointed that my hero has feet of clay. He's just like all the rest---desperate to keep their cushy positions in the government so they don't have to go back to earning a living the way the rest of us do; damn the citizens, full speed ahead with whatever the banksters and big corporations want. What a disaster our "democracy" has turned into.
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
I don't trust him.
"Trust no one, Mr. Mulder." - Well-Manicured Man
and i'm curious... i don't remember that nelson was a noted abortion foe...
when did his anti-choice conversion happen? and why?
anyone know his history on this subject?
If he is to stay in office he has to do something big to please this well insane GOP base. Effectually killing Abortion will gain him a lot of votes.
Yes he is a complete and utter asshole.
Published on Saturday, December 19, 2009 by Politico
Stupak, Working with GOP, Trying to Sink Abortion Compromise
by Ben Smith
Politico
“An aide to Rep. Bart Stupak (D. Mich.) coordinated opposition to a Senate compromise on the place of abortion in health care legislation this morning with the Republican Senate leadership, the Conference Catholic Bishops, and other anti-abortion groups, according to a chain of frantic emails obtained this morning by POLITICO. The emails show that Stupak - who has so far remained silent on language accepted by Senator Ben Nelson (D. Neb.) and faces intense pressure from the White House to accept it - is already working behind the scenes to oppose the compromise… They also demonstrate a previously unseen degree of coordination between Stupak and the office of Republican leader Mitch McConnell....”
Read article @:
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/12/...
National Organization for Women opposes Senate health bill
By Michael O'Brien - 12/19/09 01:55 PM ET
The Hill
"...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...."
Read article/blog @:
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/n...
during his holdout?
a truck load.
NOBODY 2012
MOYERS: w/ Taibbi & Kuttner on Money and Politics
ROBERT KUTTNER: Rahm Emanuel, the President's Chief of Staff, was Bill Clinton's Political Director. And Rahm Emanuel's take away from Bill Clinton's failure to get health insurance passed was 'don't get on the wrong side of the insurance companies.' So their strategy was cut a deal with the insurance companies, the drug industry going in. And the deal was, we're not going to attack your customer base, we're going to subsidize a new customer base. And that script was pre-cooked so it's not surprising that this is what comes out the other side. ..
MATT TAIBBI: And I think, you know, a lot of what the Democrats are doing, they don't make sense if you look at it from an objective point of view, but if you look at it as a business strategy- if you look at the Democratic Party as a business, and their job is basically to raise campaign funds and to stay in power, what they do makes a lot of sense. They have a consistent strategy which involves negotiating a fine line between sentiment on the left [aka 'crumbs'] and the interests of the industries that they're out there to protect. And they've always, kind of, taken that fork in the road and gone right down the middle of the line. And they're doing that with this health care bill and that's- it's consistent...
MATT TAIBBI: I mean, that's what George Bush did when he wanted to get something unpopular passed or something that was iffy. I mean, he just took, you know, if there were any recalcitrant members, he just took him in the back room and beat him with a rubber hose until they changed their minds. I mean, he could've taken Joe Lieberman back there and said, look, if Connecticut ever wants a dime of highway money again, you're going to have to play ball on this thing.
That's what the president does. I mean, the president has an enormous amount of power. The leaders, the majority leaders have an enormous amount of power. And if they want to pass something, they can do it. And especially when there's a tremendous public mandate to get something like this passed. I just- the idea that they couldn't do this was- is a fallacy.
one can only hope that this does not cut into my bonuses.
last year I made over 20 million in bonuses as a CEO of a major health insurance company.
my strategy was to create teams within my organization to find ways to seek out pre existing conditions and if a major claim was being made to find a typo or misinformation from the customer in the contract.
then send a letter of non payment. :-)
this made our company several billion more dollars in profits.
our corporation has spend millions on congress and the white house to control this outcome.
it appears to have worked as people will be forced to buy our insurance and we can charge whatever we want.
and that ten per cent clause for profits I can get around that by jacking up our costs such as giving myself and my friends huge bonuses.
congress did put on a good show to convince the american people they were after real reform.
god bless them as actors. love those people and they love our money. it works for all concerned. the american way.
we are truly a christian nation of god to be able to make such profits off the sick and needy.
merry christmas.
god bless america and let the profits roll on.
since when is it a constitutional right, to have your abortion paid for by the federal government?
think about it...the homeless guy living next to the clinic can go F himself, but next door...
serious question: can anyone explain to me, what's left in this bill?
Nothing.
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
Stupak effectively prevents women from buying health insurance that will give them abortion coverage, if they are getting even a smidgen of subsidy in order to pay for that coverage.
No Blue Dog or GOP busybody should have the right to stop women from getting insurance that will cover abortion, because like it or not, it's a health issue.
I've never seen change without a fire
and be grateful you have health insurance. Bout sums it up.
I really like this approach. Ben Nelson should also insist that taxpayer can opt out of paying a separate fee for our wars of choice and for our armed forces in Afghanistan. Plus a separate tax we can avoid for pursuing and enforcing the death penalty. Those are activities that involve murders of already born human beings, and this immoral to any decent person (as well as not being cost effective use of tax funds). And while we are at it, we should be able to opt out of taxes that support abstinence only programs, military bands, and health insurance and pensions for elected representatives. This is a great idea, Ben! Thank Phil and Buster for thinking of it.
Where do I sign up?
bankrupted every day of the year. And people who make good incomes. Approximately More then half of bankruptcies are due to skyrocketing medical costs. Insurance or no insurance.
This piece of garbage is a freaking outrage.
I at least would have understood if you guys backrupted the country for free health care for everybody.
but what is this? bankrupting the country for...what exactly?
ben nelson's bribe?
for another 5 years. The last of the too big to fail group.
Yes, Ben Nelson wants this, but that does not let off the hook all the other Democrats including so-called women Feminists like Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, Patty Murray, etc. from Voting FOR IT TOO!!!!
This is it folks---Why let other Democrats off the hook here? Yes, it's Ben Nelson's wish regarding abortion, but, that does not mean the other Democrats have to VOTE FOR IT!!!! The Democrats own this Bill and that means the Ben Nelson provision.....Yes indeed.
Who needs the right wing when you have the Democratic Party appeasing their GOP "enemies" on women's rights issues?
VOTES SAY an awful lot about the party and individuals...Obama, Emnauel and the Democrats in the Senate do not care about women's reproductive rights or the right to privacy.....
I remember Barbara Boxer's "outrage" over the Stupak amendment on MSNBC....Gotta love those Corporatist-Militarist Democratic Party, don't ya?
Many if not most of the folks here get taken in by trite melodrama of the supposed right/left sequence of events.
The Democrats are set to pass another gateway bill to neo-feudalism.
People tend not to understand the full dimension of this.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
there's always bobblehead bashing. A nice "safe" activity.
Yeah, I know it....people do that all the time....Wishing against wish and wishing for hope.....
John Pilger offers great analysis on the branding of Barack Obama...
Carroll Quigley--Bill Clinton's political mentor at Georgetown University despised "partisanship" and saw partisans as the fringes of society.....
Yes, Gore Vidal, Naomi Klein, Antonia Juhasz, Walden Bello, Ralph Nader, Noam Chomsky, Mya Shone, Ralph Schoenman, Robert McChesney, Immanuel Wallerstein, John Bellamy Foster, Glen Ford, Bruce A. Dixon, Margaret Kimberley, Paul Street, Adolph Reed, Jr., Peter Dale Scott, Chalmers Johnson, Glenn Greenwald, Howard Zinn, Sheldon Wolin, Chris Hedges, etc., all have it correct about this very amoral and bankrupted political/economic/social system in America.
..."conservative" and "liberal" no longer have any meaning. It's corporatist vs. populist(and not in a tea party sort of way), and we just lost in a big way. A pox on both their houses.
"Buy the ticket, take the ride."
Hunter S. Thompson
Nelson: "I feel relevant"
The only real question is who will be next?
Seems more like a ping-pong game or tennis match.
UGH!
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
The Nebraska Right to Life crowd is going to withdraw their support of Nelson in the next election no matter what he does. The anti-abortion language will be watered down in conference committee, and they'll blame Nelson.
And we can say, "buh-bye, Ben..."
and even if it's not watered down, it'll never pass muster with that crowd. Paying separately for abortion coverage is just an accounting gimmick to them. They want to criminalize abortion.
People that are in favor of the status quo (i.e. teabaggers) have never had to use their insurance for anything catastrophic. We had excellent private insurance (and a fair amount of savings) when my wife was battling colon cancer, and it still nearly bankrupted us. If she hadn't died, we'd be broke. And there's millions of Americans in the same boat.
Sad commentary.
"I've been bribed."
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
... Ben Nelson's endorsement eliminates it.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
posing as a democrat.
Republicans are liars and simply cannot be trusted.
from Nelson and it comes loaded with shit too, oh boy!
He makes a fine manure spreader salesman
He said he will not vote for a bill that is changed in conference so when the merged bill is presented we will be right back where we were before Nelson got his cash and allowed states to prevent abortion coverage for even private insurance plans
...he uses big words like 'particularly' and 'delicatessen.' -- Jack
Abortion is immoral? How immoral is it to bring a child into the world against thier will and then neglect them and let the ripples spread into society? I'm starting to hate my society, the ignorance, the neglect ... I did not choose to be born! I did not choose my parents! If you neglect me, abandon me, abuse me YOU SHOULD PAY! A good death is not immoral. Hell I've been in a coma before, there is no awareness, no memory. There is nothing to fear in death, you are no worse off than before you were born. There is pain and suffering in life. Hell is a state of mind and a state of being. You feel pain in your conscience mind, it is delivered in your flesh. There is no knowing of an afterlife or a pre-life. Take your stone age books and your stone age morals and SHOVE IT!
A song about healthcare? Reprise: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oB2wLpD_Zak
The only qualifier to get married and start popping out babies in most places is: "Are you straight?" ... Libertines rule the day, unless you're gay ... Modernise the USA should be the rallying call, too bad the public airwaves have been high-jacked.
"Nelson secured full federal funding for his state to expand Medicaid coverage to all individuals below 133 percent of the federal poverty level. Other states must pay a small portion of the additional cost. "
Will those deep red conservative Nebraskans stand by their "conservative principles" by turning down those fedrul guvment dollars and balk at the "socialist" Medicad money Ben's got coming into their state?
He's just a stooge of corporate America who willingly takes their blood money to sell out those in need. He thinks he's so powerful and important---but by all means, Ben, go ahead and tell these people about the benefits of your smug and arrogant ideology:
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/18278
It's assholes like you that compromise our political system with your arrogance and selfishness. Public service is about other centered service--- serving the needs of the public, not a means for your personal enrichment and platform for your pedantic and petty political views.
Ignore this last fact at your peril. The voters are the ultimate deciders, not you. History remembers fondly the altruistic who sacrificed for the public good, forgetting the Ben Nelsons who were only there to pad their supersize egos.
"We will find fulfillment not in the goods that we have, but in the good we can do for each other."
Robert F. Kennedy
I won't vote for this bill is men get their viagra paid for by the insurance company they need to pay for that seperately
The entire lot of them disgust me. I have written literally dozens of letters to my congress critters over the past year and the only response I get is a form letter. I wonder if lobbiests are treated the same way these corporate whores treat the voters? We all know the answer to that. We taxpayers are most likely buying dinner and drinks for all the people working behind the scene to screw us to death and get their hand in our pocket to get every last dime we have.
All we can do is hope and pray that Bernie Sanders will stand by his word and vote to stop passage of this horrible piece of graft being shoved down our throats by the insurance industry and their whores in congress. If he doesn't stand on principle, then I hope the American people rise up and do whatever is required to put a stop to these criminals we have representing (?) us.
represented by absolute prehistoric cavemen. I am so ashamed of these dimwitted, ignorant sons-of-bitches. WHY are they in Washington? Are their constituents truly that fucking ignorant as well??
apparently so.
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
LIEberman and push them out to sea. I disgusted with these two losers who are only concerned for filling their pockets with Insurance Company Cash. These guys better get canned when they run for office again, or the Democrats will be just as morally bankrupt as the Rethuglicans.
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
You lie!!!
Love,
Joe Wilson
First of all, let me say I'm 100% pro-choice. I had two abortions myself back in the 70s and 80s. I don't know of one woman who has ever filed a claim w/her insurance company to cover an abortion. Also, abortion isn't something that a woman has done on a regular basis (contrary to what the "lifers" say) and needs ongoing coverage for. It's not like an annual physical or pap smears. For once, I think the left has gone a little nuts over a non-issue. They/we should be concerned about the restrictions already in place. Anyway, I hate to see the left shoot itself in the foot over a knee jerk reaction. One idea is to have an organization that is strictly and only in place to provide funding for women who can't afford abortions. Have it funded by private donations, let the women apply and get the funds on an expedited basis and get their abortions wherever they want. Planned Parenthood isn't the only group that provides abortions. That way, it could be kept private and anonymous. I haven't worked out all the details in my little mind yet, but I think there's a place for an organization like that. I know I'd contribute.
I second your idea and feelings on this one. I'm 100% pro-choice, yet 99% against abortions for my family (wife)..but then, circumstances have a way of affecting one's opinion on that matter.
I also agree that a private organization would be a good idea...but watch out for the bill oreilly's in the world...as it would ALWAYS be a target of the evangelically derranged.
Finally, I am so sick and tired of having the "pro-life" morons reply with comments regarding the "unborn child"...as if it's a child from the time sperm hits the egg. Such simpletons. I can't say when HUMAN life begins, but I would say the earlier the abortion, the better I sleep at night. They always pull out the "partial birth abortions"...as though we are pulling babies out of the womb and killing them on the hospital floor. There has to be some middle ground in all this argument. Don't know exactly what I'm getting at...but it's just too damn complex an issue to leave to the government to dictate. Perhaps leaving it to the individuals involved makes a bit more sense, eh?
help get rid of this Anti American, Nazi, Fascist piece of shit.
Comments are closed on this entry