{"id":116928,"date":"2009-12-30T18:47:39","date_gmt":"2009-12-30T23:47:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/northwestvoices\/2010642233_moreonnebraskasenbennelsonssweetheartdeal.html?syndication=rss"},"modified":"2009-12-30T18:47:39","modified_gmt":"2009-12-30T23:47:39","slug":"more-on-nebraska-sen-ben-nelsons-sweetheart-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/116928","title":{"rendered":"More on Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson’s sweetheart deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Climate-change legislation similarities<\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot of similarity between the federal government\u2019s $100 million subsidy of proposed Medicaid costs to Sen. Ben Nelson\u2019s home state of Nebraska in exchange for his vote on health-care reform [\u201c \u2018Cornhusker kickback\u2019 bends federal law,\u201d Opinion, editorial, Dec. 28], and some of the provisions of currently proposed climate-change legislation.<\/p>\n

In addition to the cap-and-trade provisions, regulatory exemptions to pollution limits are being written into the bill for many of the industries doing the most polluting, as well as other favored operations.<\/p>\n

Special considerations for the home states of various senators are playing a role in all manners of horse-trading \u2014 concessions in return for votes.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Tom Camfield, Port Townsend<\/em><\/p>\n

Vote still stands<\/strong><\/p>\n

The editorial regarding the special price extracted by Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., failed to extrapolate one important result of the bribe offered by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., to make the deal.<\/p>\n

Even if we the people are fortunate enough to have the U.S. Supreme Court determine that the bribe is unconstitutional, and set aside the $100 million payment to Nebraska, the one vote Nelson cast to move the legislation forward in the Senate would still stand.<\/p>\n

Reid wins the battle regardless of whether the method used to win the battle was ethical. He wins because he cannot lose after the vote is cast in his favor and he attains the 60 votes required to move the legislation forward.<\/p>\n

This kind of deal-making is what is wrong with Congress. Until the deal makers in Congress are held to the same criminal standards as the business community, nothing will change. Blatant acts of bribery in the business community are illegal and they are prosecuted. Why are they considered deal-making in Congress?<\/p>\n

\u2014 Gerry Bowlby, Lake Forest Park<\/em><\/p>\n

Health-care editorial: nothing\u2019s perfect<\/strong><\/p>\n

The editorial \u201cPut health care aside and fix the economy\u201d was one of the strangest I\u2019ve ever read [Opinion, Dec. 20].<\/p>\n

The Seattle Times has long been a supporter of universal coverage, but the bill isn\u2019t perfect so 50 million Americans need to wait until an uncertain date for health insurance? When does the editorial board think that date is \u2014 after the just-say-no Republicans gain seats in Congress next year?<\/p>\n

The editorial supported an idea but not an actual bill to achieve that goal. Name one major piece of legislation in U.S. history that was perfect and didn\u2019t have to be revised later. It stated the top issue is the economy. What does that mean to ordinary people? If they lose their job and health coverage for their family, health care is not a major economic issue for them?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s presumptuous to say that senators who chose to participate in good faith in the yearlong health-reform debate don\u2019t understand the bill.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Deborah Mihm, Yakima<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Climate-change legislation similarities There\u2019s a lot of similarity between the federal government\u2019s $100 million subsidy of proposed Medicaid costs to Sen. Ben Nelson\u2019s home state of Nebraska in exchange for his vote on health-care reform [\u201c \u2018Cornhusker kickback\u2019 bends federal law,\u201d Opinion, editorial, Dec. 28], and some of the provisions of currently proposed climate-change legislation. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116928\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}