Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has bought the 60th vote for Obamacare in the Senate. Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska caved after some weak changes in the bill’s funding of abortion and after securing taxpayer handouts for his state. Senator Nelson was Christmas shopping after all.
After his now famous Lousiana Purchase on a Saturday in November, Harry Reid created the Nebraska Compromise the Saturday before Christmas, again hoping that Americans won’t notice. (The original 1854 Nebraska Compromise made possible the expansion of slavery in Western states and caused the creation of the Republican Party which was founded to abolish slavery.)
Ben Nelson was not the only Senator bribed by Reid. Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont also had to be taken care of since he is upset about the drop of the public option that was needed to get Senator Joseph Lieberman’s support. The Washington Post reports:
Nelson also secured full and permanent federal funding for his state to extend Medicaid eligibility to everyone below 133 percent of the federal poverty level. The bill would require all states to do so, but Nebraska alone would not be required to pay a portion of the additional cost after 2016. And he won concessions for some nonprofit insurers and for providers of supplemental Medicare coverage from a new insurance tax, and he was able to roll back cuts to health savings accounts.
Other Democrats also won important changes. Reid added $10 billion for community health centers to provide services to low-income people. That funding had been a top priority for Sen. Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.), a liberal champion of the public option.
The lunatic left is up in arms because the current bill does not give the government immediate full control of health care. Former head of the Democratic Party Howard Dean, billionaire George Soros’ Moveon.org, the Huffington Post and the National Organization for Women have all called for the defeat of the current bill.
Leftists senators and representatives though will decide that it is better to vote for the current bill and use the extensive regulatory powers the bill provides to gradually achieve a full government takeover of health care than to defeat the current bill. They understand that they will lose heavily in the 2010 election and that it will be a long time before they will get another chance to take over one sixth of the US economy.
They will play their corrupt games and try to get goodies for their states. President Obama, Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will continue to bribe senator and representatives in order to pass this bill. They have made a mockery of our Constitution and should all be voted out of office.
The only chance to defeat Obamacare is to convince at least one moderate Democrat in the Senate or three representatives to change their mind. Republicans will try to delay the Senate vote until after Christmas by requiring that the whole bill be read on the floor of the Senate (How awful is that? They actually want to make sure that people have a chance to read the 2000+ page bill!) and by other parliamentary maneuvers.
Politico reports that Representative Bart Stupak who opposes abortion funding is working with Republicans to defeat the current bill.
At this point, Americans can call moderate Democrats in the Senate and House to urge them to vote against the bill. They can donate to their opponents in the 2010 election. You can give to ReverseTheVote.org which is aimed directly at 24 House Democrats who voted for Obamacare but who are vulnerable to well-funded GOP challengers next fall. If three of these representatives change their vote, Obamacare dies.
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