Key quotes, via ABC News:
"Well, first of all, it has more than a robust public option, it's got a totally government-run plan, the costs are extraordinary associated with it, it increases taxes in a way that will not pass in the Senate and I could go on and on and on."
"Faced with a decision about whether or not to move a bill that is bad, I won't vote to move it. For sure."
Nelson's vote is critical to getting a bill passed because Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid needs 60 votes before the Senate can even begin debating the bill. With all 40 Republicans currently opposed to it, Reid needs the votes of all 60 Democrats.
There is one thing about the House bill, however, that Nelson does like: the strict ban on any abortion coverage by insurance plans bought with government subsidies. Unless the Senate bill includes a similar provision, Nelson said, he'll vote against it.
"Federal taxpayer money ought not to be used to fund abortions," Nelson said. "So whether it is subsidies on premiums or whether it is tax credits or whatever it is...it should not be used to fund abortions.".........
This puts Harry Reid's insistence on putting Pelosi's Obamacare care bill on the calendar for next week, risky at best.
With no Republican's on board, Reid needs every single Democrat as well as the two Independents to have the 60 votes needed to proceed.
He doesn't have Nelson, Lieberman has already said he will vote with Republicans to block the it, which puts Reid short the votes he needs to even move forward.
Added to Lieberman and Nelson are other Democratic Senators that have spoken out against the public option or any type of Government run healthcare.
Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR, as recently as 10/27/09, was reported to be against a government-funded insurance option, via Arkansas Business:
"Creating another government-funded option is not where we're going. We don't need to go there," Lincoln told members of the Arkansas Farm Bureau during a video conference. "A government-funded option is something that I think is not the way to go."
Other Democratic Senators like Lincoln, and Nelson, include Arkansas' Mark Pryor, Louisiana's Mary Landrieu, Virginia's Jim Webb and Mark Warner, Montana's Jon Tester, Indiana's Evan Bayh, North Dakota's Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan and Delaware's Thomas Carper.
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