by Margery A. Beck
Associated Press
December 20, 2009
OMAHA, Neb. — It was the concern of Nebraska’s Republican governor over expanded Medicaid costs in the proposed Senate health care overhaul bill that led to a compromise to cover his state’s estimated $45 million share over a decade, U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson said Sunday.
Gov. Dave Heineman “contacted me and he said this is another unfunded federal mandate and it’s going to stress the state budget, and I agreed with him,” the Nebraska Democrat said. “I said to the leader and others that this is something that has to be fixed. I didn’t participate in the way it was fixed.”
But Heineman expressed anything but gratitude, saying he had nothing to do with the compromise and calling the overhaul bill “bad news for Nebraska and bad news for America.”
“Nebraskans did not ask for a special deal, only a fair deal,” Heineman said in a statement Sunday.
That criticism is only a taste of what Nelson has received since announcing Saturday that he would become the 60th vote needed to advance the landmark legislation.
Despite the perks Nelson managed to garner for Nebraska in finally agreeing to support the overhaul bill, the backlash from those who wanted Nelson to hold a hard line against the measure was immediate…
…Nelson obtained increased federal funds to cover his state’s cost of covering an expanded Medicaid population at what one Democratic official estimated at $45 million over a decade.
A group called Americans for Prosperity of Nebraska was to hold a rally Sunday in Omaha at which former GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee was to speak. Nebraska Republican Rep. Lee Terry also planned to speak in an effort to persuade Nelson to change his mind.
Nelson isn’t taking the backlash lying down.
“This is all orchestrated,” Nelson said Sunday. “It’s so thinly disguised … it’s almost laughable…
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