Reid Unveils Bill, Claims Nelson On Board

As you know, Harry Reid has been working in secret for almost two weeks to complete a bill that can win Senator Ben Nelson's vote. He unveiled that legislation, which will be introduced as a "manager's amendment" to modify the bill that the Senate has been working on. He hopes to have a vote taken by Sunday night.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/30807.html

The bill would call for the creation of national health insurance exchance that would allow people to shop for insurance, subsidies to help low-income people buy insurance and an expansion of Medicaid. It does not include the government-run health insurance option that Nelson and other moderates objected to - and its absence has drawn fire from liberal critics who say the bill doesn't amount to true reform.

And as I fully expected (and as I warned you), the combination of carrot and stick was too much for Senator Nelson to resist, and the word is now that he will support the bill... though oddly enough, he denies it and says he has to read the actual wording of the bill.

Senate Democrats reached a deal with Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) Friday night to move forward with a health care reform bill, clearing the way for a series of votes on the landmark legislation next week, said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y).

Schumer told reporters in the Capitol that the deal was finalized late Friday night, with a handshake at 10:30 p.m. The negotiations included Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Schumer, Nelson and White House officials Pete Rouse and Jim Messina ended after a marathon 13 hours of talks.

"There were many times they thought they couldn't come to an agreement," Schumer said. "We are now for the first time really feeling good. I think every Democrat realized whatever his or her views, we had to get this done."

But Schumer made clear the negotiations, which centered on abortion funding and Medicaid expansion were touch and go. "There were several times in that room where we thought we wouldn't have a deal," he said.

And in fact, Nelson left the Capitol about 10 p.m. telling reporters there wasn't deal - at least not a final one — and that all sides had to sleep on it.

If you'd like to read the amendment, here it is:
http://www.politico.com/static/PPM145_chris.html

This bill will pass, friends, as I've maintained for a while. Conservatives don't like the bill, independents have been rejecting it in recent polls, and recently we've seen numerous influential liberals saying the Senate bill should be killed.
http://politicsalabama.blogspot.com/2009/12/liberals-rejecting-obamacare.html

And add to that list Move On.org, who recently added their voice to liberal calls to reject the Senate bill.
http://www.politico.com/livepulse/1209/MoveOn_opposes_Senate_bill.html

The Senate has NO public support for this bill at all. If you want my opinion, and you do, I believe that the route to victory in the 2010 elections for fiscally conservative candidates is to promise to vote in favor of repealing the horrible ObamaCare that nobody wants.

Take note of that, prospective Congressional candidates...

UPDATE: And it turns out that Nelson's "carrot" included extra federal funding for Nebraska. Bribery again...

That gave Nelson enormous leverage as he pressed for concessions that included stronger restrictions on abortions to be covered by insurance policies offered in a newly overhauled health care system. Officials said he was also seeking to ease the impact of a proposed insurance industry tax on nonprofit companies, as well as win more federal funds to cover Nebraska's cost of treating patients in Medicaid, the state-federal health care program for the poor. These officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks, said the administration and Democratic leaders had offered concessions on those points.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34479067/ns/politics-health_care_reform