Ben Nelson Will Vote to Begin Health Debate; What Will Mary Landrieu, Blanche Lincoln Do?

By: Stephanie Condon
Topics: Health Care

(AP Photo/Harry Hamburg)

With the first critical vote for the Senate health care bill slated for Saturday night, both advocates and opponents of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's bill are putting pressure on the few key Democratic senators who may or may not hold up the measure.

On Saturday at 8 p.m., the Senate will vote on whether or not to even begin debate on the measure. Reid needs at least 60 senators to vote in favor of debate, and Republicans plan on uniformly voting against moving forward. A handful of conservative Democrats have expressed reservations about supporting the bill, for various reasons, and two have not yet disclosed whether they will vote in favor of moving the debate forward on Saturday: Sens. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) and Mary Landrieu (D-La.).

However, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), another conservative Democrat whose vote was in play, announced today he would vote in favor of beginning debate. He maintained, though, that he will vote with Republicans to filibuster the bill after debating it, if it is not altered to his liking.

"The Senate should start trying to fix a health care system that costs too much and delivers too little for Nebraskans," Nelson said in a statement. Saturday's vote, he said, "is only to begin debate and an opportunity to make improvements. If you don't like a bill why block your own opportunity to amend it?"

Nelson and his fellow centrist Democrats have been feeling the heat from all sides. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) e-mailed his supporters this morning, Politico reports, urging them to call Nelson's office and ask him to vote against the health care debate tomorrow. Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee sent out an e-mail with the subject "Your Call Can Make the Difference," also urging people to call Nelson and Lincoln and ask them to vote against Saturday's motion.

"Two Democrat Senators - Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) - are critically important to defeating Saturday's vote," the e-mail says.

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Meanwhile, the Democratic National Committee is also sending out an e-mail, asking supporters to call Reid's office to say, "Thank you for introducing a strong bill that helps all Americans."

Progressive groups that were earlier putting pressure on Reid to include a government-run health insurance plan, or "public option," in his health care bill are also thanking him now for doing so. The Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) last month ran an ad in Las Vegas called "Is Harry Reid Strong Enough?" that featured a local nurse named Lee Slaughter.

PCC is now releasing a robocall in which Slaughter says Reid "shocked the political
world by being so bold on this issue" of the public option. "If you want to join me in thanking Senator Reid, and letting him know that we'll stand with him as long as he keeps fighting for a public option, please press one on your keypad." Listeners are then given the opportunity to thank Reid and join PCCC's ongoing public option campaign.

Reid has certainly engaged in a great deal of horsetrading to try to secure 60 votes for his bill. He has, for instance, worked to modify the bill to please moderate Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) by providing the state of Louisiana with between $100 million and $300 million in Medicaid financing for 2011. Coincidentally, the Times-Picayune reports, will host a fundraiser in New Orleans next month for Reid.

Liberal groups are also pressuring certain senators to keep the public option in the bill, presuming debate on the bill ever gets started. Some moderates may try to amend the bill during debate and replace the public option with a so-called "trigger" plan, which would enact a public option after a certain number of years if the private industry failed to meet certain standards. MoveOn.org is challenging this idea with a new ad in Lincoln's state of Arkansas and in Maine, home of Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe, who initially proposed the trigger idea.

Stephanie Condon
Stephanie Condon is a political reporter for CBSNews.com.
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by southcentex November 22, 2009 10:37 PM EST: The things going on in Wash. has nothing to do with health care,creating jobs or any other topic. All I see If you are a dem or a rep. They are palying a game with us and we are the pawns.; Reply to this comment


by southcentex November 22, 2009 10:26 PM EST: The things going on in Wash. has nothing to do with health care,creating jobs or any other topic. All I see If you are a dem or a rep. They are palying a game with us and we are the pawns.; Reply to this comment


by ajvw November 22, 2009 6:53 AM EST: On the eve of Saturday's showdown in the Senate over health-care reform, Democratic leaders still hadn't secured the support of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), one of the 60 votes needed to keep the legislation alive. The wavering lawmaker was offered a sweetener: at least $100 million in extra federal money for her home state.

And so it came to pass that Landrieu walked onto the Senate floor midafternoon Saturday to announce her aye vote -- and to trumpet the financial "fix" she had arranged for Louisiana. "I am not going to be defensive," she declared. "And it's not a $100 million fix. It's a $300 million fix."; Reply to this comment


by burnsrunner November 21, 2009 2:27 PM EST: How to meet patients' needs? One of the things missing completely is the benefits of personal medicine, in which patients actually receive personal attention. Dr. Norman Makous (doctor for some 50-60 years) has written a book talking about just that, called "Time to Care." It's not about the current legislation, but about the changes that have happened in the care of patients and how that should be fixed. And the legislation fails to address the key issues in the book, which is HOW we provide medical services! His point of view is that having an independent primary care physician at the heart of the person's medical care is a proven, effective and an ethical method of monitoring care, and it reduces unnecessary and expensive tests that drive up costs. Very thought-provoking -- and the kind of medicine I want.

http://normanmakous.com/; Reply to this comment


by mmvale November 21, 2009 1:04 PM EST: Dear Mary and Blanche, Please do not vote for this disaster. Don't you wonder why the president and congress wrote themselves out of this 2000 page bill? Let's help everyone get healthcare insurance but can't we do it in 10 pages or less? Congress needs to go back to the drawing board and devise a simple, meaningful bill that everyone can understand. Help the hard working people of America and vote, "NO" please!; Reply to this comment


by ajvw November 21, 2009 10:27 AM EST: What does it take to get a wavering senator to vote for health care reform?

Here?s a case study.

On page 432 of the Reid bill, there is a section increasing federal Medicaid subsidies for ?certain states recovering from a major disaster.?

The section spends two pages defining which ?states? would qualify, saying, among other things, that it would be states that ?during the preceding 7 fiscal years? have been declared a ?major disaster area.?

I am told the section applies to exactly one state: Louisiana, the home of moderate Democrat Mary Landrieu, who has been playing hard to get on the health care bill.

How much does it cost? According to the Congressional Budget Office: $100 million.; Reply to this comment


by gboyd41 November 20, 2009 8:55 PM EST: In my opinion, if the good Senator from Ark. votes for this bill, she will not be back after the the next election.; Reply to this comment


by crikeytx46 November 20, 2009 6:11 PM EST: mary Landrieu has been bought off from harry reid to the tune of 100 million smacka-roos!!! So I take it she'll probably vote for this over the top legislation!!; Reply to this comment


by msimamaji November 20, 2009 6:05 PM EST: Let's look at the facts that are not included in this report.

Blanche Lincoln gets political campaign contributions from health professionals, insurance industry, lobbists, for profit hospitals/nursing homes, and pharmaceutical industry. Of her individual donors, Blue Cross takes 3rd place

Mary Landrieu also gets campaign contributions from lobbyists, health professionals, and insurance companies. One of her top individual contributors is Goldman Sachs, which has a vested interest in eliminating health care reform.
Joe Lieberman has gotten $2 million from the health care sector, which includes health insurance and pharmaceutical companies. He gets $ l million from lobbyists. Lieberman's top 20 political donors include Aetna Health Insurance and Pfizer Pharmaceuticals.

All of this debate revolves around the Benjamins. These 4 politicians as well as everybody in the GOP are only concerned about the 2010 elections and maintaining their contributions.
In the meantime, 44,000 Americans die each year because of inadequate health care, according to a report published by the Harvard University Medical School. Our infant mortality rate is twice as high as the infant mortality rates of Sweden and France. But the GOP and the Blue Dog Democrats do not care. They put politics above human life.; Reply to this comment