The Whole Delivery

For a second time this year, the DISCLOSE Act has failed to pass in the House of Lords. 59-39 was the final total, as a disclipine party line vote was the end result. Even Ben Nelson decided to not buck his party for another rare moment, deciding to stay with the Democrats on this bill. Nevertheless, as always the case, no Republicans wanted to vote in favor of the bill, adhering to their corporate overloads at the sacrifice of the American people once more. Not a surprise, but just another routine day in the most dysfunctional and anti-democratic chamber known to modern day human being. Update : In more positive news, the House got out the Small Business bill , as that is now passed onto to President Obama for signature.

Jim Webb Sure Isn't Making Himself Look Rational Here Jim Webb has upset a lot of people by saying he would vote against repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" for reasons beyond me except him having a bad irrational streak of looking bigotty. But in this bizarre world we live in, we have an even more truly bizarre moment. Ben Nelson of all people says that he will vote "Yes" to repeal the crazy, insane, and outrageously stupid policy in the military. A big step forward for the push to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell: Senator Ben Nelson, who has been aggressively lobbied for months by gay rights groups, is announcing that he'll support the repeal compromise. From Nelson's statement: "I don't believe that most Nebraskans want to continue a policy that not only encourages but requires people to be deceptive and to lie. The 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy does just that. It also encourages suspicion and senior officers t...

Along with the Maine duo of Collins & Snowe, Ohio's Voinovich, and one Kit Bond, Scott Brown has voted on cloture for Harry Reid's job bills to move it to a final vote. Those five Republicans offset Ben Nelson, who decided to be bipartisan the other way as usual by voting with the rest of Republicans against bringing it to the floor. The final cloture vote was 62-30, and we shall see if this will be the final result overall. David Dayen has some good tidbits on how some Republicans once again voted against a bill where some of their suggestions/provisions were actually placed in the bill. Some fun facts while we wait for the final tally: Orrin Hatch co-authored the centerpiece of this micro-bill, the job creation tax credit. He voted against bringing it to the floor. Chuck Grassley co-authored all the pieces in the bill and has expressed in particular support for the provision allowing small businesses to write off capital expenditures. He voted against cloture. Roger...

Photo From Harry Hamburg/AP/File As Ben Nelson is in for the 60 vote (and Republicans cheer for his moves), here is the CBO score : The CBO score of the final Senate health care bill is in, with an $871 billion price tag. That's up from the last score, $849 billion. No indication when the Senate floor vote will happen yet next week (if it still does happen). But Harry Reid can be sort of happy, as the concessions and craving to Nelson's demands seem to have won that disgruntled Senator over : In order to secure the support of all 58 Democrats, and both independents who caucus with his party, Reid had to make significant concessions to centrists, including eliminating the public option, and tightening the language restricting federal funds from paying for abortion. He also apparently had to guarantee that the federal government would cover the entire cost of expanding Medicaid in the state of Nebraska--home to Sen. Ben Nelson. Reid insisted today that this Medicaid agreement, co...

First, NYCEVE is at a free health clinic in Kansas City. It is a deep : Here is live coverage of that Health Care Clinic: Visit msnbc.com for breaking news , world news , and news about the economy Jew Lewison has written something that is probably the realest post today that can be made about the entire process as a whole: I tend to doubt there's any chance of this happening, but I'm thinking it would be smart for President Obama to concede that the Senate health care bill has serious flaws, even though on balance he believes it is a step forward on health care reform. The basic reason is simple: it's the truth, and that's something the public appreciates from its leaders Instead, the only thing you'll here though is "This bill isn't perfect, but it's a good start" or something along those lines. Nancy Pelosi softens her stand on the public option , and that will make fierce House progressives not happy. Apparently, Harry Reid sent more that one t...

Nelson amendment fails with a 54-45 vote, as McCain now starts to get angry about Medicare Advantage again. Full total to come. They are about to vote on McCain's Medicare Advantage extension, which is likely to fail thankfully. Updated : And McCain's stupid amendment fails by a 57-42 total. I hope someone puts up the anger that McCain shows, because it is downright laughable. Overall review of the Nelson amendment, because seven Democrats wanted it in there as well. Very disappointing to see Bryan Dorgan apart of voting to keep Nelson amendment in there. Those Dems who joined Nelson were Casey, Kaufman, Bayh, Pryor, and Kaufman. Meanwhile, Nelson and Webb (weird) were the only Dems to vote in favor of McCain's Amendment .

Really Democratic senators that should be following their party line to just allow a vote on a Democratic bill should be standard news. Sen. Ben Nelson announced Friday he will vote for a cloture motion Saturday that clears the way for Senate debate on health care reform. Nelson, a centrist Democrat who holds one of the key votes required to prevent a Republican filibuster, said the Senate needs to "start trying to fix a health care system that costs too much and delivers too little for Nebraskans." Now he will continue to bask in the attention of slowing rather than "starting to fix" of course.

Photo from Omaha World-Herald It seems like everyone is doing teabagger math these days : One thing that’s driven many health care reform proponents nuts about Senator Ben Nelson is the sheer arbitrary nature of many of the hurdles he keeps laying in reform’s path. The latest: Nelson now says health care reform should have the support of 65 Senators to have credibility with the American people. Nelson also says he will actively oppose any efforts by Dems to do reform alone through the “reconciliation” process. Nelson made the claims to an audience in his home state of Nebraska, reports the Omaha World Herald. Even more telling is this headline from the Omaha World Herald about how Nelson loves himself some status quo behavior: Bipartisanship math is just like teabbager math these days. As John Aravosis said yesterday over at his great blog , "How can a bill be even 'bipartisan' with just one Republican vote anyway?" Or with just a handful of votes from the Sad Obnoxi...

Via Mcjoan at the Kos , the Democrats who are Republicans in heart do it again . A bipartisan group of centrist and conservative senators sent a letter to the Democratic and Republican leaders on Friday urging delay in consideration of health care reform. The letter, obtained by the Huffington Post, was drafted by Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and is also signed by Democratic Sens. Mary Landrieu (La.) and Ron Wyden (Ore.). Independent Joe Lieberman (Conn.), who caucuses with Democrats, signed on, as did Maine Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins -- moderates heavily courted by President Obama. We talked about Nelson in the post below, and not surprise to see the likes of Lie berman and Landrieu in there as well. Status quo Democrats who love their lobbyists homies more than the people they are suppose to represent. Touching. (Here is their letter .)

"Class warfare" he calls the "House Health Care Bill." President Nelson speaks : Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), whose vote will be critical to passing a final healthcare reform bill through the Senate, condemned the House version of the bill, which institutes a surtax on wealthy Americans to finance the $1 trillion bill, as creating "class warfare." "I think it's a devastating blow," Nelson said of the import of the CBO analysis this week that the House healthcare reform proposal would worsen the fiscal situation of the U.S. over time. As Ms.Hamsher points out The only way we get a public plan is if progressives take a stand and refuse to "compromise" with Ben Nelson over something 76% of the public wants. And read the rest of that post from Ms. Hamsher. The insurance industry is going nuts right now. They are scared that their days of thinking about their money instead of people's lives maybe over. And they are doing everything in ...