Saturday, December 19, 2009

Looks Like Ben Nelson Has Sold His Vote On ObamaCare Too – Sen DeMint and Rep Stupak Fight On – Please Join Them

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Remember the $300 million in our tax Harry Reid is spending to buy Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana's vote on Obamacare? It is being reported that Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska is falling in line after being offered his own $300 million in Medicaid funds deal.

Fox News reported:
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., ripped the compromise bill, accusing Democrats of trying to deceive Americans by "jamming" a bill full of special deals to win over reluctant senators.

"This is an outrage," he said, adding that if the bill was popular, Democrats "wouldn't be passing it the weekend before Christmas and in the middle of the night."

The compromise didn't seem to do much better at appeasing liberal groups, like Planned Parenthood, which issued a statement saying it "strongly opposes the new abortion language."
Reid and other party leaders engineered a last-minute compromise on parts of the legislation to win the support of the lone Democratic holdout, Sen. Ben Nelson.

Marathon negotiations among the White House, Senate Democratic leaders and Nelson, a conservative Democrat from Nebraska, produced fresh concessions that will mean additional abortion restrictions in the legislation and funding to cover poor people for Nelson's state and others.

"I know this is hard for some of my colleagues to accept and I appreciate their right to disagree. But I would not have voted for this bill without these provisions," Nelson said at a news conference in the Capitol. He said he reserves the right to vote against the final bill if substantial changes are made by House and Senate negotiators.

Democratic leaders offered Nelson a deal similar to the $300 million in Medicaid assistance Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana got for her support, numerous sources told Fox News.
There seems to be some hope that Stupak is working with the GOP to stop Harry's Bill

Rep. Bart Stupak called the Senate’s bill’s abortion position "unacceptable." One of his staffers actually collaborated by email with Senate minority Leader McConnell.

Politico reported:
An aide to Rep. Bart Stupak (D. Mich.) coordinated opposition to the Senate health bill’s abortion compromise this morning with the Republican Senate leadership, according to a chain of frantic emails obtained this morning by POLITICO.

Stupak, in an interview with POLITICO, called the Senate’s bill’s abortion position "unacceptable" – but disavowed his staffer’s collaboration with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“I never talked to McConnell about the health care bill,” said Stupak, adding that that “I did not authorize the email [which] “was sent without my knowledge.”

Stupak said that he has discussed the Senate’s abortion position with conservative Democratic senators Ben Nelson (Neb.) and Robert Casey (Penn.).

Stupak's continued opposition to the Senate plan, despite those conversations and intense pressure from the White House, suggests that reconciling it with the House bill may prove politically challenging.

The National Organization for Women is also working to defeat the compromise.

DeMint plans to delay vote by any means...

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