Nebraska Senator Mike Johanns called the Health Care bill agreed to by Senator Ben Nelson, "reprehensible":
The deal struck is tragically insufficient. Nothing less than Stupak abortion language was expected and instead we've been handed a watered down accounting gimmick that leads to Nebraska taxpayers subsidizing abortions in other states.
This is a very bad deal for Nebraskans and I am stunned and incredibly disappointed. If you are pro-life you cannot vote to end debate on this bill. This could very well be our last chance to stop taxpayer-funded abortions.
Re: Abortion issues:
- The manager’s amendment does not prevent federal funds from paying for abortions in the federally –subsidized health care exchange.
- Under the amendment, States can “opt out” of providing insurance coverage of abortions in its exchange.
States can opt-out of providing insurance coverage of abortions, but cannot opt-out of paying for abortions in other states.
The manager’s amendment ensures that Nebraska taxpayers will be paying for abortions in California.
- For the first time, a federally funded and managed health care plan will cover elective abortions.
Each state, through the Office of Personnel and Management (OPM), can provide two multi-state plans and only one of them will exclude abortions.
OPM’s current health care program—the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) does not include any plans that cover elective abortion.
- The manager’s amendment includes the reauthorization of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, without language to prevent federal funding of abortions.
Fails to codify restrictions to prevent federal funding of abortions within Indian health.
Re: Tax and other issues:
- Still increases taxes, fees and penalties on American citizens by a half a trillion dollars. Five Democrats who opposed these tax increases on Tuesday, apparently support them now in the Reid compromise. (Recorded Vote #376)
- Actually INCREASES taxes $30 billion more than the original Reid legislation that has been debated for over two weeks. (initial Joint Committee on Taxation Score = $371.9 billion in tax increases; now = $397.7 billion in tax increases)
- Still imposes almost a half a trillion dollars in Medicare cuts.
Cuts approximately $150 billion from hospitals, nursing homes, hospices, and home health providers.
Cuts Medicare Advantage insurance coverage by $118.1 billion. Approximately 35,000 Nebraskans have Medicare Advantage plans.
- Still imposes a punishing Medicaid unfunded mandate on state taxpayers in all but one state (an earmark for Nebraska exempts our state).
- Still includes an accounting gimmick that even the Democrat Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee called a Ponzi scheme. Eleven Democrats and one Independent voted to remove this program from the bill, yet it remains in the Reid compromise that all Democrats appear to now support. (Recorded Vote #360)
- Still increases the size and reach of the Federal government. The Congressional Budget Office projects the Internal Revenue Service, the Health and Human Services Department, and the Office of Personnel Management will need to increase their budgets by $10 billion to $20 billion just to administer these new entitlements. (page 12 of the CBO report).
And this from National Right to Life:
The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of right-to-life organizations in all 50 states, strongly opposes the abortion language contained in the "manager's amendment" filed todayThe manager’s amendment is light years removed from the Stupak-Pitts Amendment that was approved by the House of Representatives on November 8 by a bipartisan vote of 240-194. The new abortion language solves none of the fundamental abortion-related problems with the Senate bill, and it actually creates some new abortion-related problems.
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18 comments:
True leadership and not a fence sitting sell out like Ben Nelson.
Julie where are you on this!!!!!! Are you going to issue a press release before the OWH prints tomorrow's edition???? Nelson sold us out!!!
"The deal struck is tragically insufficient. Nothing less than Stupak abortion language was expected and instead we've been handed a watered down accounting gimmick that leads to Nebraska taxpayers subsidizing abortions in other states.
This is a very bad deal for Nebraskans and I am stunned and incredibly disappointed. If you are pro-life you cannot vote to end debate on this bill. This could very well be our last chance to stop taxpayer-funded abortions."
Nelson's phones are off and voicemail is full!!!
Well, I hope the voters of Nebraska are learning some very important lessons as they dig deeper in their pockets to pay for crappy snow removal services as well as higher health insurance premiums. First and foremost is that elections matter. Senator Ricketts would not have voted for this.
I have not heard from Julie Shmidt Albin...Hmmm...does she not know what the national organization is saying?????
A Christmas vote from Ben Nelson...Babies aborted with your tax dollars...Thanks Ben
Where's Julie Schmit Albin in all of this? She's had EBN's back from day 1 and she's always found new and innovative ways to excuse his terrible pro-life record.
Ms. Albin if you do not come out and condemn Ben Nelson's support of this horrendous health care bill than you should resign from your post immediately.
Julie follow National Right to Life's talking points and not Ben Nelson's. Where is the response to this vote???? The silence is deafening!!!!
It's a weak bill, but not a terrible starting point. Folks, like Social Security and Medicare, Health Care Reform is like a cathedral -- built over decades. It'll take time, but future Congresses will improve this.
Nelson played this well, in a manner that benefits Nebraska.
As for Mike Johann (a/k/a the weakest and least influential member of the United States Senate) -- Just LOL!
I would like Johanns; Heineman; Terry; Fortenberry; Smith (and all the wannabees starting with Bruning) to answer the following question:
How would you have voted on the establishment of Social Security and Medicare?
Just LOL.
Fine examples NE Voter. Both programs have been built to over extend their intended purposes and now are going broke.
Perfect...just what we can expect in the future for Obamacare...another failed government overreach.
Welfare mothers are dancing in the street.
Ben Nelson has taken another giant step in fulfilling his slimeball legacy. From waste dumps to welfare mothers...he is the king.
Anonymous -- Social Security is the most successful government program in history. As for Medicare, go ask your mother/father/grandmother/grandfather how they like your notion that SS and Medicare should be abolished.
LOL.
Can someone please tell Kris Pierce I may actually donate to his campaign (no way I'm voting for him though), on the condition that he grow his goatee back? He looks so damn freaky right now... and I know I'm going to have to endure seeing his mug dozens of times over the next year.
OK. Here's the deal. If you don't like the health care bill (that will eventually get passed) don't pay the mandated amount the federally backed health care insurance mafia will demand of you, then don't pay the federal fine and go to jail ... don't pass Go ... go directly to jail.
When 50 million Americans do that, what will happen? Will they have enough courtrooms, prosecutors, and prisons to hold them all? And what of those that actually have the moral and political wherewithal to carry through on their threats to do that? Well, the federal government will incarcerate them; that will cost the taxpayers a little under $25 thousand a year per prisoner, plus the cost of providing them better health care than they could afford on the outside.
If 50 million Americans that oppose this plan did that - both on the Republican as well as on the Democratic sides - what would the overall costs to our nation be? Just the cost of incarceration would be a quarter of a trillion bucks. Who knows what providing health care to all the prisoners would be. With 50 million people tying up the courts, there would be absolutely nothing being accomplished there other than further draining of our treasuries. And, with 50 million people out of work due to their criminal status ...
Get the picture? Maybe a public option health care plan that doesn't kiss the insurance mafia's butt cheeks isn't so bad after all.
NE Voter:
If Social Security is the best government program around, then how come it is going broke? Is it the best because it is not as broke as the others?? PUH-leaze...I'm 40 years old and when I retire there will be nothing left. As far as my grandparents, others on medicare...they HAD to pay for it so yes they will use it. But the vast majority of the people I know on medicare have had to buy the supplemental..so it must not be that great. And good luck finding a nursing home that takes you if your medicare doesn't cover everything...well, maybe the ones that let you sit around in a soiled diaper in bed all day.
SOYLENT GREEN people....a strange futuristic piece of fiction...or a possible REAL glimpse of the future??
Anonymous 10:06
Social Security is not in "real" danger of insolvency. It is a simple matter of political will - Remember, your Saint Ronald Reagan signed off on SS reform that restored solvency. It will happen again, despite all the caterwauling from so-called "conservatives."
This phony "war" over Health Care Reform was really about one thing: Attempting to prevent the Democratic Congress from erecting a third column of progressive legislation to protect American families (SS an d Medicare being the other 2).
Bitch all you want -- Health Care Reform is a MAJOR victory for the American people. The most significant legislation since the Americans with Disabilities Act (passed by another Democratic Congress), which truly changed the lives of millions of our fellow citizens.
LOL.
Great picture of Iron Mike. Do you know if he was a proctologist in a prior life?
He must be suffering from ADD.....no one is paying any attention to him.
Sen Nelson = 30 pieces of silver!
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