Ben Nelson bought off with extra Medicare funding

First Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid bought off Sen. Mary Landrieu with the "Louisiana Purchase" to get her to sign on to ObamaCare.

Now it appears there is Cornhusker Cash for Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska. Along with concessions on abortion funding, the majority party has bought off this senator with extra Medicare funding for his state.

So for now, it appears the Democrats have their coveted 60th vote so they can mismanage one-sixth of the economy.

UPDATE 10:45am CST: Senate Republicans are claiming that Indian Country has been left out of the abortion compromise.

From Roll Call (registration required):

Senate GOP aides, looking for opportunities to pick apart the Democrats’ health bill deal, charged Saturday that Indian health care provisions contained in Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) compromise bill do not include key abortion provisions negotiated by Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.).


Democrats included “by reference” legislation passed by the Indian Affairs Committee last year covering health care in Indian Country. Under the compromise bill, that version of the bill would be deemed passed.

But that version of the bill did not include key abortion provisions prohibiting the federal government from funding abortions. Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) ultimately inserted abortion provisions during floor debate — but the bill died in conference largely because of the Vitter language.

Republicans called the language a “huge mistake” and speculated it could cause difficulty for Reid, since it would appear to undercut his deal with Nelson to continue prohibitions on federally funded abortions.

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