It’s 100% astounding that Democrat U.S. Senator Ben Nelson thought a good way to get the state attorneys general to back off of their mission of stomping the Cornhusker Kickback would be to have the federal government pick up the Medicaid tab to all 50 states. Truly, not in touch with the economic and political realities of what’s happening in the U.S. From Politico:
The document goes on to say: “Senator Nelson said it would be ‘fixed’ by extending the Cornhusker Kickback (100% federal payment) on Medicaid to every state.”
Senate Democratic leaders have made no reference to a plan to expand the Nebraska deal to the remaining 49 states — a move that would be prohibitively expensive to the federal government and raise serious questions about whether health reform would lower the expected federal deficit, as President Barack Obama claims it would.
At the same time, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said after the Nebraska deal came to light that he envisions other states lining up to seek a similar deal down the road. Under the Nebraska provision, all added expenses from expanding Medicaid to cover the uninsured in Nebraska starting in 2017 would be borne by the federal government forever, not split with the state as they are now.
According to the memo, McMaster responded to Nelson by saying that the goal of the GOP attorneys general was to remove the Nebraska Medicaid provision from the bill and that “he saw no way that he—nor any of the state attorneys general—will support extension of the Cornhusker Kickback to every state nor be a part of a deal like that.”
Senator Nelson can’t be feeling good about his situation right now. It’s already clear that voters aren’t feeling good about what he’s done. A recent Rasmussen survey has Senator Nelson getting just 30% of the vote in a hypothetical ‘12 U.S. Senate match up against Republican governor Dave Heineman. Heck, only 17% of Nebraskans even approve of the deal he cut with Harry Reid on this one. And 64% of Nebraskans oppose the health care legislation.
Nah, not feeling good at all…unless you’re a Republican with eyes on that U.S. Senate seat there in Nebraska.
