November 20, 20091:45 PM ESTFrom NetRightNation.com:
The editorial board of the Omaha World-Herald makes a brilliant case calling on Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) to vote no on a cloture vote for Harry Reid's Health Care plan. Nelson is one of the most closely watched swing votes in the Senate. This same argument should be made coast to coast about why the plan should be stopped before it can make it to the Senate floor.
From the Omaha World-Herald:
Sixty votes will be needed to send Sen. Harry Reid's health care proposal to the Senate floor for debate. Sen. Ben Nelson, one of the most closely watched swing votes, should vote no.
Why? Because Reid's proposal, like that approved in the U.S. House, would place immense burdens on small and medium-sized rural hospitals in the Midlands. It would not prevent further steep increases in health care costs.
It would, however, shunt billions in new costs onto state governments. And its budget savings at the federal level depend on empty, misleading promises of fiscal discipline that Congress has shown it's utterly incapable of fulfilling.
If anyone doubts the threat to Nebraska, especially its rural areas, remember that it was Reid himself who tried to get a side deal to hold his own state of Nevada harmless from the increased Medicaid expenses that would raise costs steeply for state governments — and thus state taxpayers.
Those considerations need to occupy the very forefront of Sen. Nelson's thinking as he ponders how to vote on the proposal. Is he more worried about making sure that the vital interests of Nebraska are protected, or about pleasing Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi?
There ought be no question about what the proper answer should be. And that answer — making absolutely sure that health care legislation does not harm the interests of Nebraska — should lead the senator to vote "no" on sending the legislation to the floor.
If the legislation does win final passage in the Senate, it then would go to a conference committee with the House. The odds are that the conference committee would make the legislation even more heavy-handed and centralized, without proper consideration for the burdens placed on Nebraska.
In the Senate, the conference committee's proposal would need only 51 votes to win final approval. Nelson at that point could vote no and the legislation nonetheless would become law with the president's signature.
Read the rest at NetRightNation.com.
Adam R. Bitely
Executive Director
NetRightNation.com
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