According to just about every source on the net, Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska, the final Democrat holdout in the health care debacle, has caved.  He will now be supporting the Senate “Health Care Reform” bill.  That gives Harry Reid his 60 votes and, barring major changes before the final vote, likely ensures passage.

What caused the turnaround?  A payoff, of course.  Nelson had been seeking stricter rules regarding federally funded abortions, but it seems that what really tipped the scales was an undisclosed amount of money for his state.  As the Washington Post put it:

“Nelson told reporters late Friday that he remained dissatisfied with abortion-related language in the $848 billion bill. But he is also seeking changes to benefit his home state”

So, knowing that it costs $100 Million to purchase a vote in the house, one can only guess the going rate of a much more valuable vote in the Senate.  This morning at 10 A.M., Nelson issued a statement, saying: “I truly believe this legislation will stand the test of time…the lives of millions of Americans will be improved.”

Apparently all of those millions live in Nebraska, as HotAir just posted the following, which now appears in the new bill:

(b) with respect to all or any portion of a fiscal year that begins on or after January 1, 2017, for the State of Nebraska, with respect to amounts expended for newly eligible individuals described in subclause (VIII) of section 1902(a)(10)(A)(i), shall be determined as provided for under subsection (y)(1) (A)

In other words, over the next three years, Ben Nelson’s state will get hundreds of millions of federal dollars.  After that, they’re trapped on the same sinking ship with the rest of us.  Several sites are speculating that Nebraska will be receiving around $300 million for Nelson’s support, but we won’t know the exact amount until we can read the entire bill. Knowing how the oh-so-transparent Democrats operate, will be sometime after it becomes law. 

With Nelson on board, the Politico is reporting that the rest of the week looks like this:

–SATURDAY, DEC 19th — 7:20 am – Final passage on DoD approps bill. Note: After the DoD bill is dispensed with, Leader Reid can file cloture on the manager’s amendment, the substitute amendment and the overall bill on health care.
–SUNDAY, DEC 20th — Wait for cloture to ripen
–MONDAY, DEC 21st — 1 am – Cloture vote on manager’s amendment
–TUESDAY, DEC 22nd –7 am – Cloture vote on substitute
–WEDNESDAY, DEC 23rd — 1 pm — Cloture vote on overall bill
–THURSDAY, CHRISTMAS EVE — 7 pm – Final passage vote on health care reform

Nelson claims that if substantial changes are made between now and Thursday, he reserves the right to vote against the bill.  Of course, if we go by precedent, Reid can always just write him another check and lapdog Nelson will heel.

So congratulations to Nelson.  The vote you’ve sold will pass a piece of legislation that places a federal cap on the amount of profit a private U.S. corporation can make.  Last year for Christmas, the Democrats gave us the least popular first year President in history.  This year they’ve given us the legal framework to dismantle capitalism, since the Reid bill will cap profits at 20%.  I wonder how long it will be before Pelosi and Reid try to apply that precedent to other industries?

Hopefully, under next year’s tree, we’ll find a conservative-controlled Congress that can clean up this mess.

UPDATE:  In section 1303, we find that the Bill requires annual passage of the abortion language.  If Congress fails to renew it, even once,  federal funds will pay for abortion.  Nelson is aware of this, so we now know that all of his posturing was really about the cash, since he’s just promised to vote for a bill that Dems can easily alter after the fact.  Bravo, Nelson, you truly are an utterly spineless sellout…

Looks like, as usual,  Charles Krauthammer called it….

 
- Robert Laurie

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