Ben Nelson Says He Might Block Dem Health Care Bill

By: Stephanie Condon
Topics: Health Care

(AP Photo/Harry Hamburg)

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) said Tuesday he would join a Republican filibuster of the Democratic health care bill if he thinks it is a bad bill.

"Faced with a decision about whether or not to move a bill that is bad, I won't vote to move it," Nelson told ABC News. "For sure."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid intends to bring his health care bill before the full Senate next week. After debating the bill, he will need all 60 Democrats in the Senate to vote for "cloture" -- in other words, to stop a Republican filibuster in order to vote on whether to approve the bill. Reid's only other option would be to resort to a process called "reconciliation," which would enable Democrats to bypass a filibuster and get the bill approved with only 51 votes.

Nelson is not the only Democrat who has threatened to vote against cloture. Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) has said he would filibuster a bill with a government-run health insurance plan, or public option. Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) said on CBSNews.com's Washington Unplugged that he would even block a motion to proceed with debate on the bill if he strongly objected to the legislation.

Nelson said he was concerned about the proposal to create a public option. Reid is including in his bill a public option from which states could opt out.

"I have said I would look at an opt in for the states, or an option for the states to be able to create their own alternative," Nelson said.

The senator also repeated his assertion that he wants the bill to expressly prohibit the use of federal dollars for funding abortions.

When asked if he could support a bill without that specific abortion clause, he said, "I can't imagine that I would."

On Tuesday, former President Bill Clinton urged Senate Democrats to pass a health care bill, even if it is imperfect.
"What I heard him say is that you don't have to let the desire for perfection get in the way of the good," Nelson said. "And that makes a great deal of sense. But I would add the caveat that we have to be sure it is not a bad bill, that it doesn't add to the deficit, that it doesn't increase taxes, and that does, in fact, control the growth in costs."

Stephanie Condon
Stephanie Condon is a political reporter for CBSNews.com.
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by spqr_us November 12, 2009 2:06 PM EST: It's funny seeing the Moveon.org crowd attacking Nelson. God this is funny, keep it up idiots. It's fun watching these communists smear their own house with filth and then light it on fire. Nice sideshow.

Here's the real story losers: the Democrats are watching Obama and Pelosi destroy teir own party and see that the day of reckoning is indeed coming. The deal is this, these corruptocrats don't care abotu anyone but themselves. The ones that aren't openly dirty like Nelson see their power and cushy leadership jobs going poof in the next election that means no more kick backs and bribes for them or their buddies. That is the same reason why the RINO's keep telling conservatives to let them be a majority even if the voters hate them.

As for the others like Dodd or Frank they and Pelosi (Pelosi is delusional) know that when power changes hands in November that the prosecutions can begin...; Reply to this comment


by magicwolf1 November 12, 2009 11:35 AM EST: Nelson should just switch to the party of special interest, the GOP. Bring the full weight of the Dems support network against him, and get someone in that office who will actually represent the people of Nebraska instead of their own greedy self-interest and the interest of corporate benefactors.; Reply to this comment


by NdubuezeC November 11, 2009 5:23 PM EST: Yes, why won't you do that? Your benefactors are drumming for you and you are dancing to their tune. Senator Nelson, it is your kind that brings disrepute to the Democrats. You enjoy a health insurance funded by the tax payers but NO!!, you will not support one that will give those same tax payers access to NOT-FREE but affordable health care. NO!!!! You can't support that. Never. It's against your principle to help the poor man on the street. You sit there in your cozy Washington DC office and have the audacity to say that you will not support health care reform that has a public option. The day of reckoning is coming Senator Nelson and all like you. It is coming.; Reply to this comment

by rock0267 November 11, 2009 3:42 PM EST

You know, I really didn't like George W. Bush. I thought he made a terrible mistake getting us into Iraq. However, I did, and do, agree with his views on capitalism. The marketplace is ALWAYS the best way to decide pricing. As long as there is competition, and modest regulations, profit will flow and with that comes prosperity for all.

That is the problem with the "public option". It will, eventually, lead to the bankruptcy of all the major insurance companies (of which I am in no way affliated for those of you who think otherwise). I am merely a student of economics and of America.

Once you only have one provider (the government) you will either have higher premiums or higher taxes to offset the costs of covering everybody. Many sensible people only go to the doctor when they really need to. But I can tell you without a doubt that there are also many, many, people who are what doctors call drug-seekers. They are people who will go to the doctor at the drop of a hat. Some practically live in the ER. They are hypocondriacs, druggies, addicts, etc. People like that would run "free" healthcare into the ground. I promise you that.

As far as Obama is concerned, I really don't like him because he thinks that government can spend its way out of any problem there is. He will spend this country into a hole that will probably leave us in a worst economic condition than what the former U.S.S.R. went through that eventually led to it's own demise. We cannot spend ourselves to prosperity.

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by us_1776 November 11, 2009 4:03 PM EST: What part of "we are already in the hole" don't you understand? The spending sprees of the last three Republican administations amounted to over 9 TRLLION DOLLARS OF SPENDING. Not even the most far left Democrats have ever come close to proposing this type of reckless spending. So get off your completely misinformed old stereo-type of the Democrats.

President Obama is one of, if not the smartest president we have ever elected to office. And he is facing multiple enormous crises left to him by decades of failed Republican spending policies that continually cut Federal income while conducting totally irresponsible spending sprees in pursuit of some "corporate" sponsored agenda.

And you can quit parroting all the Limbaugh/Beck/Hannity nonsense about the public option. We have multitudes of public/private choices in this country that have co-existed together successfully for hundreds of years. The US Postal Service and United Parcel Service (UPS) for example. Our system of public universities and our private universities. And of course their are cost differences between them but neither public nor private has jeopardized the other. And the same goes for the public option. This option is not going to have all the bells and whistles that many if not most of the private plans will have and therefore you will not see it be a threat at all to most of the private plans. It will provide some basic competition to the inbred closed circle of private insurer offerings. There is absolutely ZERO chance that the public option is going to drive any private insurer out of business. And many experts have looked at this and have said as much.


by rock0267 November 11, 2009 4:40 PM EST: First of all, the US Post Office is bankrupt, run out of business by FedEx and UPS. Check it out. They only reason they are in existance is because they can't be allowed to fail. They have been cutting back hours and are thinking about dropping Tuesdays as delivery days.
Second, the Bush Admin did not bring us into the hole 9 trillion. Not even close. Please do not spout things unless they are backed up by facts. I do not have the exact number, but it is nowhere close to 9 trillion. However, In the less than a year since Obama has been in office he HAS introduced policies that will drive us into the hole 9-14 trillion in a decade. This is what has been scored by the CBO. Actually, they say 9 trillion, but a good size of that comes from Obamas estimates of what he is going to bring in due to the new carbon taxes and Cap and Trade (which most likely will fail, I hope). That is why it will probably closer to 14 trillion.
Obama, smart? That is certainly a matter of opinion. But I have to keep asking myself, if he is so smart, why are his policies so full of stupidity? They do not make economic sense. Honestly, the man is a moron. Again, you CAN'T spend yourself into prosperity. You must save to do this. The economic crisis we find ourselves in now is now due to Obama's direct actions. Why don't you spend all of your income, max out your credit cards, borrow money and don't pay it back, and come back here in 10 months and tell me how you are doing.

by maistir November 11, 2009 2:59 PM EST

Sen. Nelson (DEM, Neb.) and Sen. Lieberman (I, Conn.) know that thousands of jobs and a great deal of business activity in places such as Omaha and Hartford depend on insurance companies. Why should they vote to damage their states' economy?

Reply to this comment


by us_1776 November 11, 2009 3:29 PM EST: Because the entire greed-corrupted mess we call a healthcare system in this country is going to fail. Every credible expert agrees that this is going to happen. And we have 50+ million Americans uninsured heading towards 70+ million within 3 years as evidence that this is already starting to take place. And like all these collapses it will reach a critical point and then collapse very quickly. Is it in their states interest to be a part of total chaos and anarchy? Any lawmaker that is looking at this from the standpoint of business as usual just does not have a grasp of the situation.

by rock0267 November 11, 2009 2:28 PM EST

be careful what some of you wish for. England is a prime example. When we were paying over $4 a gallon of gas recently, we were rightly complaining. If anybody bothered to read the news in England at the time, they were yelling at us Americans to stop complainging because our gas was so cheap. You see, they were paying nearly $10 (equivalent in their currency) per a gallon(liter) of fuel. Why was there's so high. Because they have extra taxes built in to each purchase of fuel to pay for their national health care. Check it out for yourselves. That might not be the plan for here now, but you wait until this budget busting bill is in place for about 5 years and they will have to find other ways to fund it, specifically, more taxes. Since we always seem to follow Europe and England on matters of tax ideas, it is only a matter of time before we would be doing the same thing. if not, it would be built into other items. Obama is already quietly pushing a VAT(Value Added Tax) of up to 25% on EVERYTHING you purchase. Check this out, too. It is all verifiable (just like Obama).

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by rbichamp November 11, 2009 2:43 PM EST: Yup! I've spent some time in Canada and Asia and now, I will never complain about gas prices! It's so much cheaper in the US!

by rock0267 November 11, 2009 2:22 PM EST

DEFICIT NEUTRAL!?! Are you an idiot? Do you actually believe this?! Do you ACTUALLY believe that this bill will not increase the deficit by even one dollar?! These are the types of people who voted Obama in. We are truly being governed by idiots voted in by more idiots.
Come on, get real. Any kind of accounting on this bill is for paper purposes only. Not real life. For one thing, their idea of saving over 400 billion dollars is by squeezing more savings out of medicare. How fanciful this is. Honestly, really?, you can believe in the concept of health care reform or not, but do you REALLY BELIEVE it is deficit neutral?!

As far as polls go, I don't believe anything from CBS, CNN, etc. You need neutral, unbiased polls. All of the networks are in the pockets of the democrats. They are out there and they show that the majority of Americans really do not want this type of spending at this time to revamp a system that works for most Americans. They only want modest requirements for insurance companies and plans to pick up some of the currently uninsured.

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by tmn November 11, 2009 2:56 PM EST: You think the public only wants "modest requirements for insurance companies"? What, are you are insurance agent? On what planet do you sell insurance??


by retirevet November 11, 2009 3:00 PM EST: rock0267,

It takes a lot of nerve calling someone an idiot from someone who probably voted for one the worst president in US history, W. Bush. You probably was foolish enough to vote for him twice. If that isn't a mark of an idiot, then I don't know what is.

by marcodele November 11, 2009 2:21 PM EST

We are all currently already paying for the uninsured and underinsured people in this country, one way or another. Your high car insurance rates are because a lot of drunk drivers do a lot of damage, and why should you have to pay for that? Well, you do.

Let's reform the system now, once and for all.

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by rbichamp November 11, 2009 2:46 PM EST: Agreed! Let's reform the system!

However, we need to start from scratch! And take ideas from all sides, not just the far left!

The current bill is so flawed! It is only meant to grow government and take away your freedom!

I mean you have to pay a fine if you don't buy insurance! How stupid is that? And if you don't pay the fine, you can go to jail for 5 years! That's the bill that passed in the House!

by TimB.MCSE November 11, 2009 2:00 PM EST

Not the right time or budget for spending 1 trillion dollars we don't have. Cap and Trade, another $1000 a year in taxes. When does this end? I cannot afford to have the government have any control over any industry, it just costs to much.

Change the tax to a flat rate with no exemptions for anyone. (A 1 page tax document) and it will eliminate all the lobbyists, and billions of government spending. If you want to fix health care costs, then fix health costs, how exactly is forming a new government agency that provides health insurance going to save money? It's not. Everything the government involves themselves with costs more. Creating a new drug by Pharma's costs billions as they have to jump through the miscellaneous government hoops before they can release it (almost 10 years from start to finish because the government gets invovled). Reality people, reality.

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by jimbom121 November 11, 2009 2:53 PM EST: If not now, when? With the unemployed losing healthcare, and small businesses not being able to afford to keep paying for it? The only bad thing is that the reform doesn't go far enough.

by crikeytx46 November 11, 2009 1:45 PM EST

The U.S. has Medicaid and Medicare already. They can up the weekly allowable salary amount to admit more to Medicaid....but at the same time they need to fix the prevalent fraud in both Government plans. They should also reform the current insurance providers so the will allow pre existing health conditions without extra premiums, allow crossing state lines to price compare (more competition), do more on Tort Reform, and lower prescription drug prices or allow the u.s. citizens to buy them across borders, etc.

We don't need a 3rd fallable Hellth Plan!!!!!! This piece of Legislation does nothing but chip away at our freedoms!

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by us_1776 November 11, 2009 1:57 PM EST: The vast majority of the fraud in Medicare is CORPORATE fraud!!!!

And who do you think these medical professional corporate entities contribute to? You got it, the Republicans. And need you wonder why the Republicans never brought up any efforts to control this CORPORATE Medicare fraud?

The Democrats healthcare reform bill now specifically addresses the biggest "sweetspots" of CORPORATE fraud.

The only freedom that is being chipped away at is the freedom for Republican crony corporations to rape and pillage the American public.


by crikeytx46 November 11, 2009 2:11 PM EST: Dems received more contributions from these so called "Corporate Cronies" than Repubs..... do your research then get back with me.

Read the bill or you can find sections of it all over the net that explains several so called features, panels, requirements, limits. There's even a Panel to question your Parenting Skills...how 'bout that!

It does chip away at our freedom!!