Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) opposes public health ins. "Would be too attractive"

We, the Congress, are here to work against the rest of you.

FFS

which makes it a lot easier for the rest of us. We KNOW whose side they're on...and who's side they aren't on.

so why not come out and say it? In reality, what percentage of the population will even KNOW they said it? My guess is not many.

Unfortunately, I posted a response from my senator, Mark Warner, which essentially says the same thing that Nelson says but with more double speak.

... Although I do not support a government-run single-payer health care system, I believe we need comprehensive reform to achieve a competitive, cost-effective, and efficient system. This effort should be primarily focused on ensuring that all Americans can get adequate health coverage, and the coverage must be cost-effective and based upon data-driven medical standards. Any final reform should also include measures to promote use of electronic medical records and a more intense focus on preventive care.

When this issue comes up for debate, I plan to put progress before partisanship to work on ways to increase access to health care for all Americans...

Apparently, they are owned by or afraid of the insurance companies, screw the rest of us.

Howard Dean, former Governor of Vermont, made clear that he should have done
Single Payer in Vermont --
Their plan costs 3X more than Single Payer would have cost--!!!


Apparently, they are owned by or afraid of the insurance companies, screw the rest of us

Wonder when any of them may be getting tired of devoting almost 100% of their time to raising
funds - constant phone calls - and kissing the asses of corporations and doing their dirty work?

Meanwhile, those campaign funds keep them in office -- not votes.

you are right, and how.

:toast:

So he's basically saying that he's more concerned about the health of the insurance companies than he is about the health of Americans.

forfeiting his tax payer funded health insurance any day now. Wonder if he will hold a press conference to announce his downgrade to private coverage?

Good! We want them removed from the scene!

He needs to go....

Ick.

:wtf:

he gets from the insurance lobby. Fuck him and his campaign fund. He should change his name to Shyster.

This is one of those statements from a politician that makes me want to sit down with them over a beer and just... figure out what the hell they are thinking. It doesn't even make sense from a purely cynical "get reelected" standpoint.

Does he deeply believe that private solutions are better? Then why is he a Dem? Does he just want the juicy campaign contributions? But why go on record opposing 66% of voters?

Makes no damn sense, I tell you!

it's their contributors. Rarely does an incumbent lose against a less well funded rival. They stick it too us simply because they can.

It is not us. And to think we thought it would be easier when Obama won. Not!

the insurance lobby.

From his bio:
Nelson enjoyed a successful career in insurance law. He has served as CEO of the Central National Insurance Group, as chief of staff and executive vice president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, and as director of the Nebraska Department of Insurance.

Also our corporate-media gets 80% of those campaign funds for political ads--!!!

Many NE Democrats have feckin' sick of Nelson, so he might be able to challenge Nelson, and many Republicans like Kleeb very much in spite of the fact that he is definitely to the left of Nelson, which means he could win conceivably the seat as well.

Say this hypothetical senator, who we'll call Neb Noslen, were to oppose a public health plan on the grounds that it would hurt his paymasters - what would you think about him?

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and that's a deal breaker? Please, somebody primary this Dino.

Let the private insurance companies compete.

Nelson seems to favor inefficient, expensive insurance plans as long as his bribers remain happy and outrageously wealthy.

After the budget vote, the mortgage vote and now this, Nelson should leave the Democratic Party and join his Republican pals.

and are there any potential primary challengers we could be providing with campaign donations?

show his support for the private health industry by renouncing any and all government subsidized health care he and his family receive through the auspices of his office.

As long as he receives government supported health care while denying the average American of the same option and is willing to deny Americans a decent option in favor of protecting his pet industry through corporate welfare, his Republican soul is showing through the thin veneer that is his 'Democratic' apparition.

A Democrat in name, a Republican in deed.

I know he's had several terms in office by now. What kind of idiots would re-elect someone who has no idea what the Democratic Party stands (or used to stand) for?

I hope you won't make us return our opposable thumbs. We were just starting to get used to them.



You know I could make a crack or two about idiots in NC, having lived there for 7 years myself, but I will not suppose you to be an idiot. I'll suppose that you, and your fellow Dems continue to do the best you can and work towards improvement and progress, just as we are.

and his family. Until then he has no standing to say anything on health insurance being too attractive.

aka - campaign contributions

http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?cid=N00005329&cycle=2008

Well, at least he acknowledges the primary point: that it would be very good.

Now, if only we could get him to SUPPORT that which is very good.

We have to have a big tent with plenty of room for those that oppose good.

reelection soon? Dare I hope he will get kicked to the curb?

I think we have to hope a non-Democratic organization like moveon will launch a campaign to replace incumbent DINO's.

challenge? Big money will continue to back him as will his Senate cohorts, IMHO. The Democratic Party organizations will go with the incumbent. And since he votes with the republiCons a fair share of the time, he will get a lot of republiCon votes.

Don't think we can unseat this guy. What a great system.

Organizations like move-on can raise enough contributions to make it happen. Hope he ends up on their list.

the worst Democrats in Congress. I say Ben Nelson has to go.

The precedent you spoke of must be for the HOR. I can't think of one for the Senate, unless you mean Liarman. And that effort failed.

But there's no reason we couldn't do some primary challengers.

As Atrios sez: "More and better democrats!"

You wouldn't get any support from the Democratic Party. They throw all their support behind the incumbent. The incumbent will get money from big business and friends in the Senate.

The grass roots tried with LaMont and got their lesson.

Not surprising since he also represents the banks.

... that the private insurance companies would be unable to compete. It's astonishing that we're so thoroughly controlled by the finance industry that a completely corrupted Senator like Nelson can openly acknowledge that he refuses to vote for something that the vast majority of his constituency would prefer.

I noticed this during the televised part of Obama's 'healthcare roundtable' -- when an insurance industry spokesperson stated the same thing. They baldly admitted that the insurance industry couldn't compete in terms of cost-effectiveness with a "public option."

If there were ever a more open-and-shut case for single-payer, I've not seen it.

:grr: :grr:

:dem:

-Laelth

many doctors want it - what the hell happened to government for the people. I guess we have to keep pushing.

I can tolerate a lot of bullshit from Democrats but openly saying you oppose a public option because it is "too popular" while supporting greedy private insurance companies is a deal breaker for me.

There needs to be a primary challenge.

The broken record keeps spinning, issue after issue, repeating "campaign finance reform". Maybe eventually we'll get the message.

He's unlikely to be defeated in a primary, and any repub he goes up against is likely to be worse. Anyone got $600,000 to buy him back for the people? Even if everyone pools all their resources together to do it, he's only 1 DINO among many. And they'll be beating us on issue after issue. Health care, mortgage cram-down, wall street bailouts, deregulation, it's endless.

All of these things are on the perimeter of the wheel, spinning frantically. There's no leverage to do anything at the perimeter, everything turns too fast and every issue is just another spoke. The hub is where you can make a difference, and that hub is the money that is used to win elections.

Sorry to be a broken record. Thanks for the OP, I hadn't heard this statement.

Proof in figures: Medicare's budget, $400 billion, covers 46 million people and doesn't pay for everything. UK's NHS budget for a year - £100 billion (about $150-$160) covers 60 million people for practically everything.

We can cover the whole USA if we just double Medicare's budget and set reimbursements to health providers appropriately.

Mark.

the will of the people can be charged with torture? Wouldn't that be great? I mean the insurance companies rape and torture people all the time. Wouldn't it be perfect if you could prosecute them?

:banghead:

I really can't think of anything else to say.

He's a complete and utter dick.

still value the health of corporations above that of real people....

the health insurance companies are most important!

Why is this guy even allowed to caucus with the dems??

He should be removed from office for that comment.

you can get from the for profit companies... the loophole laden, huge deductible no pre-exisiting conditions allowed plans.

Follow the money. Greenbacks speak as loud in the Sandhills of Nebraska as they do on Wall Street.

mike kohr

If Stephen Colbert had used the Senator's words I'd be laughing right now.

and buy his votes back from the insurance industry,

Somebody put SC governor, Mark Sandford, up for sale on E-Bay. Unfortunately, we'd probably have to pay somebody to take him. Definitely NOT a money maker!

And private insurers are evil fucking corporations who make money off the backs of the sick.

Ben Nelson, I'd call you a whore but that would give whores a bad name.

We the People want a public program. You got a problem with that?

:(

I am ashamed he would say such a thing. I wonder if he realizes just how incredibly stupid his rationale is. Then again...Nebraska is an insurance stronghold, and I have to wonder how much went to Nelson for this incredibly idiotic stance?

There are times when Nebraska looks like it is still in the 19th Century, and then there are the times when people come out and prove it...:(

in Nebraska. Insurance companies land in states with attractive laws...Nebraska has made their laws attractive for insurance companies for decades.

He's a moron.
A buffoon.
Incoherent. Ridiculous.

He makes Lierberman look liberal and sane.

I hope the Obama team either reels him in (probably not) or lets him dangle in the wind, showing more and more of his detachment from the people who sent him to work on their behalf.

Yup, yup, yup, American citizens just don't deserve anything that might actually be good. They only deserve the scraps of what the Insurance companies will give them. The unwashed masses of Americans do not deserve a GOOD health care system. "If they are going to die, let them do so and decrease the excess surplus population."


Why do conservative talking points, and Ben Nelson is quoting the conservative talking point on health care, end up sounding like quotes from Charles Dickens?

I'm sure private insurance companies have never hurt the American people.

Twit

"...you mere constituents, citizens, mothers with dying children who can't go to a doctor. what have you done for ME lately? I don't see thrillions of campaign cash flowing into my bank account from you mere PEOPLE," he says, spitting disdain, red faced, veins bulging. "This is about ME, and MY future -- not a bunch of crybabies who can't afford to get sick. You know what makes ME sick? You sick people."

It was an interesting conversation he just had with me in my head.

We need 51 Senators and the willingness to use the reconciliation process.

I disagree with him on the issue, but he's elected to represent his constituents. National polls are irrelevant. If there's a Nebraska poll that shows wide support for public healthcare, that would be different. So I think the writer of the article is really grasping at straws here and providing irrelevant material.

Right now the only ads we are seeing in Nebraska are from the right-wing fear machine. Where is the national party on this? Nebraska is a CHEAP state to advertise in, and this is a CRITICAL issue. It can be done.

...all.

We cannot afford, individually or as a nation, to continue to pay the insurance companies their 31% "administrative" cut.

Any so-called "reform" that lacks a public option amounts to unaffordable CORPORATE WELFARE, and, by MANDATING insurance purchase, will further enrich the insurance interests which are a huge part of the problem.

This corporate enrichment would make it even more difficult to take on these special interests in the future.

Ben Nelson has signaled that he is aligned with the insurance interests against the American people.

Any plan lacking a public option is the enemy of real reform, and must be defeated.

pass their thoughts onto Pelosi/Reid and Nelson -- and their own Senators/Reps?

Not to mention the White House ---

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

He's a DLC member.

A caller to the PBS show stated (paraphrased) "Conservatives say socialized healthcare leads to faceless bureaucrats making medical decisions for us; they conveniently ignore that faceless cost-control bureaucrats working in the insurance industry make medical decisions for us everyday, primarily by denying claims or refusing coverage. They even get bonuses based on their denial numbers."
Truer words were never spoken, again illustrating the absurdity of Ben Nelson and his ilk. Nebraskans must deny him next election. Single-payer is the only solution; screw the insurance industry.

Pig with a great congressional health plan, I might add.

in the insurance field? I hate what has happened to health insurance, believe me (I pay nearly 300/month); however, when discussing shutting down an entire industry, does anyone ever take time to think of all the workers who will be affected?

You either go back to school or possibly, in your case, you get a job in the recovery audit collection system that they are currently building.

I don't work in the insurance industry, but it's just interesting to see how some jobs are called indispensable (i.e., auto workers) while other workers are pretty much being told to go f*ck themselves.

Since that's what got us in this mess in the first place!

that would be a PLUS...

but I would prefer that the INSURANCE COMPANIES were all gone, too...

THEY ARE A POX and a PARASITE on society...

showering. I may also ask her to get rid of some of the nice things she wears and replace them with sackcloth. If I don't do this...she will just continue to be too damn attractive to me.

This is the Wiki of the last guy who ran against Nelson, Pete Ricketts. Even W. showed up to stump for the guy. He was a SLIMEBALL of the highest possible magnitude.

--------------------
Ricketts was the 2006 Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate seat held and retained by Democrat Ben Nelson. His opponents in the primary were former Nebraska Attorney General Don Stenberg and former state Republican chairman David Kramer. Ricketts spent nearly $5 million of his own money out-of-pocket, outspending his opponents 10-1 in winning the nomination <2>.

Ricketts was running on a conservative platform, emphasizing fiscal responsibility <1>, immigration reform <3>, and agriculture <4> , as well as championing a socially conservative platform opposing gay marriage <5> and abortion <6>. In all, he contributed $11,302,078 million of his own money to his campaign, triggering the Millionaire's Amendment which allows his opponent to raise larger amounts from each donor <7> <8>. He spent more money than any Senate candidate in Nebraska history <9>.
--------------------------------------------------------

It was like choosing between a bucket of piss and whole hog lagoon. You go with the bucket of piss.

over workers and tax payers?

Nelson is one of the slimiest fuckers in politics....he's a corporate fucking republican no different than Lieberman, Specter McCain or Hatch....This prick Nelson needs a good bitch-slapping each and every day...He's one of the few I can say I'd string up this right-wing republican corporate bastard by his thumbs....What an ugly greedy hateful, selfish and corrupt republican fascist is Nelson!

Republicans ALWATS have these pigs like Nelson spying creating bullshit in the democratic party.

Scum

Edited because I called him a terrorist, but I still think he is one, but maybe that is overly harsh.

What possible value is the insurance industry to healthcare? They serve no good purpose.