Posted on 12/23/2009 12:13:54 PM PST by reaganaut1
At least 10 states are now raising questions about the legality of the deal that Senator Ben Nelson, a Democrat, cut for his home state of Nebraska during the health care negotiations.
Under the agreement, which is on the verge of being approved Thursday by the Senate, Nebraska is permanently exempt from paying for its expansion of Medicaid, shoving that cost onto taxpayers in every other state.
Mr. Nelson was able to exercise such leverage because in exchange, he was providing the magical 60th vote that Democrats needed to advance their health care bill.
The deal has enraged other Senators, especially those from red states, whose Republican Senators didn’t bring home any pork at all because they were not part of the negotiations with Democratic leaders. Several other Democratic Senators did get concessions for their states, but no deal has hit the nerve struck by Mr. Nelson’s.
Attorneys general in at least 10 states held a conference call late Tuesday to consider how they might challenge the deal, which they call federally subsidized vote-buying.
Some say it is certainly unfair and may be unconstitutional.
Troy King, the attorney general in Alabama, told MSNBC on Wednesday that the Constitution was not written to allow “the subsidization of a backroom deal.”
The Constitution, he said, was written to protect citizens from arbitrary and capricious decisions by Congress, not “for Congress to force Alabama to subsidize vote-buying.”
...
Could the growing backlash threaten passage of the health care bill? Mr. Nelson has said that he would vote for the bill only if nothing in it were changed. That makes it seem unlikely that Democratic leaders would try to undo the bill before the Thursday vote because doing so could threaten final passage.
(Excerpt) Read more at prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com ...
This whole thing (not just the Nelson part) is a mess that is almost if not in fact of the proportion to which the term “crisis” could be applied.
So what’s going on in the background that this is covering up, that we don’t know about?
Washington state is a Red state?
Since his agreement will eventually be tossed out, it means Nelson was bribed... with nothing.
All they gave him was cover. He can claim he got something for Nebraska when in fact he got nothing. Its bad enough to sell out like Mary Landrieu did, but at least she got $300 billion for her vote. Nelson sold out for nothing.
This is so spot on. Good for these brave people for speaking out against this outlandish and unconstitutional behavior.
Come on America, wake up. Vote these SOBs out
It is still 60, conference reports are subject to Senate rules of debate.
How about it’s against the law to bribe?
The deal has enraged other Senators,...
The other senators aren’t the only enraged Americans. One of these days, one of these Washington bozos is gonna catch something really hard upside the head. If push comes to shove, better be the shover, and not the shovee.
Is it possible to get a Judicial Restraining Order on pending legislation?
[We have two choices for Gov. in Texas.]
I think you are remiss for not being honest here. We have at least four choices. T@urd sandwich (Perry), d@uche bag (K), eloquent spokesman (White) and Mr. I-am-not-a-Democrat Democrat (Mr. Chi)!
Sad, but I think I will order the t@rd sandwich!
I have not heard all of Deb’s policies and plans. But, I REALLY like the fact that she is not a career politician - that really helps!
Born in Nebraska, feel free to sue my home state over this.
In a sane world, his vote on the complete bill would be considered tainted. They wouldn’t have gotten 60 votes without this deal.
The bill would be considered null and void, providing his quid pro quo were held illegal.
So walk it back - he’s already voted.
Exactly. The deal was just to get it out the door. Both Reid and Nelson know it'll be scrapped one way or another and Nebraska will have no exemption. It gives Nelson cover "I didn't think it would be stripped" and gives Reid the Vote.
Sorry, we have “two electible choices” for......”
| Nelson is on record as of yesterday that he would cancel his Medicare buyoff if the Nebraska governor asks him to. But it sounds like Nelson's vote FOR the overall Senate Bill would remain. His vote needs to be pulled because of the abortion provisions that will likely be watered down or eliminated in Conference. |
Or maybe they have a small amount of decency, not being democrats.
Hark!! are those tumbrels I hear coming?
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