Senate health care holdout signals progress - Ben Nelson (almost) on board for health reform

[jefferson_dem]

Senate health care holdout signals progress
By DAVID ESPO (AP) – 13 minutes ago

WASHINGTON — The White House and Democratic leaders made fresh concessions to Sen. Ben Nelson on abortion restrictions and other issues in daylong negotiations Friday as they reached out for the final vote needed for Senate passage of sweeping health care legislation.

Nelson, the Senate's most conservative Democrat, said "real progress" had been made in hours of talks held in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's suite of offices just off the Capitol floor. He declined to provide details.

With Nelson's vote, President Barack Obama's Senate allies would have the 60 needed to overcome a filibuster by Republicans determined to defeat the bill. Without it, the prospect was far less certain, with Reid ready to initiate a series of steps Saturday that would culminate in a critical test vote shortly after midnight on Sunday.

That gave Nelson enormous leverage as he pressed for concessions that included stronger restrictions on abortions to be covered by insurance policies offered in a newly overhauled health care system. Officials said he was also seeking to ease the impact of a proposed insurance industry tax on nonprofit companies, as well as win more federal funds to cover Nebraska's cost of treating patients in Medicaid, the state-federal health care program for the poor. These officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks, said the administration and Democratic leaders had offered concessions on those points.

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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jlMpJGn28kqCcgU-aGcYE_ZHW-ywD9CM4SVG0

[still_one]

1. more concessions, wonderful /nt

[katandmoon]

2. Fuckers.

[napi21]

3. Tachel had a quick review of Ben's history. He's always been

a conservative & a problem for Dem. causes. He was the lone Dem to vote against the stimulus package, and one of I think 5 Dems to help push through Shrub's war authorization. What's going on now is no surprise!

[Clio the Leo]

7. And yet the third senator to come out with an endorsement of candidate Obama...

.... and the President is the ONLY person he wanted to campaign with him the last time he ran for re-election.

Odd man.

[jaxx]

4. Harry must be promising Ben that

he'll never have to get an abortion.


:eyes:

[Clio the Leo]

5. We're all going to be wearing chastity belts!

by the time this thing is done ...... sigh.........

[Cha]

6. Chastity Belts and must take the

Hypocricy Oath.

[villager]

8. More changes to the bill that Nelson can believe in

n/t