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WASHINGTON — Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., has been busy this week defending the lucrative deal he secured for Nebraska before throwing his support behind the Senate health care bill.
That deal permanently shields Nebraska from increased Medicaid costs that will hit other states starting in 2017. The arrangement is worth tens of millions of dollars over the next 10 years.
It has been the focus of scathing criticism from columnists, Republican senators and even some of Nelson’s own constituents.
The attorneys general of seven states are investigating the constitutionality of what critics have dubbed the “Cornhusker kickback.”
Nelson said Wednesday that the firestorm was nothing but a “tempest in a teapot.”
Nelson said he did not seek out the special exemption for Nebraska. Instead, he said, he wanted to eliminate the unfunded federal mandate represented by allowing states to opt in or out of the Medicaid expansion.
Nelson said he was responding in part to budget concerns raised by Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman, a Republican.
Heineman has criticized the exemption for Nebraska. Nelson has said that he will eliminate it if Heineman asks him to do so.
Nelson described the Nebraska deal as putting down a marker that will help other states get the same thing by 2017.
“It’s nothing special for Nebraska,” he said.
The deal has certainly been getting a lot of attention on the Senate floor.
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., offered an amendment Wednesday to prohibit trading votes for earmarks in the future.
“If that rule were in place today, the earmarks and kickbacks used to buy votes for the health care bill would not have been possible,” DeMint said.
DeMint’s office described the Nebraska Medicaid deal as a special earmark that will “force taxpayers in 49 states to fund Medicaid in Nebraska.”
The Senate voted 53-46 to table, or effectively kill, the DeMint amendment.
Nelson initially joined most of his fellow Democrats in voting “yes” to kill the DeMint amendment, then switched his vote to “no.”
DeMint took issue with the switch: “Senator Nelson, unfortunately, is trying to have it both ways, he was for trading his vote for earmarks before he was against it.”
Nelson spokesman Jake Thompson declined to comment on the vote switch or on DeMint’s statements.
DeMint said the rule would have applied only to future earmarks and did not threaten the health care bill.
“There’s only one reason Democrats voted against this reform: They want to keep using earmarks to buy votes,” DeMint said.
Nelson said Wednesday that some people have been intentionally misrepresenting the Medicaid deal for Nebraska.
He also said his Republican colleagues can still work for changes in the bill instead of simply criticizing it.
Said Nelson, “There are those who are down there every day, every day, after their caucus luncheon with their partisan talking points, all about partisanship, not about trying to move forward an agenda for America and an agenda that’s good for Nebraskans.”
Contact the writer:
202-662-7270, joe.morton@owh.com
