Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) will vote for cloture (he’s a yes on the bill) on the Congressional Democratic attempt to socialize healthcare in America. He caved on the abortion issue earlier this morning after being promised a whole bunch of federal cash.

Sen. Ben Nelson (Neb.), the final Democratic holdout on health care, was prepared to announce to his caucus Saturday morning that he would support the Senate reform bill, clearing the way for final passage by Christmas.

“We’re there,” said Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), as he headed into a special meeting to announce the deal.

Democratic leaders spent days trying to hammer out a deal with Nelson, and worked late Friday night with Nelson on abortion coverage language that had proved the major stumbling block. But Nelson also secured other favors for his home state.

Favors? These are purchases.

Under the current merged legislation (the version unveiled on November 18th), the federal government fully finances care for the expanded population for two years and increases its matching funds (known as FMAP) thereafter. Page 98 of the managers amendment specifically identifies Nebraska for higher federal matching funds, fully funding its expansion for an additional year:

‘‘(3) Notwithstanding subsection (b) and paragraphs (1) and (2) of this subsection, the Federal medical assistance percentage otherwise determined under subsection (b) with respect to all or any portion of a fiscal year that begins on or after January 1, 2017, for the State of Nebraska, with respect to amounts expended for newly eligible individuals described in subclause (VIII) of section 1902(a)(10)(A)(i), shall be determined as provided for under subsection (y)(1) (A) (notwithstanding the period provided for in such paragraph)

Subsection (y)(1)(A) refers to page 399 of the original merged Senate legislation which fully funds state Mediciad expansions for the first two years. The manager’s amendment also provides 2.2% increase in FMAP to help states finance their existing Medicaid programs.

Nebraska gets hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds for the first, oh, three years. Then it’s as screwed as the rest of the country. As for the abortion language? You can find it in the manager’s amendment. It’s worth nothing. It’s significantly weaker than the Stupak Amendment and there’s actually a work-around to allow the use of public funds for abortion.

He got nothing but temporary public cover on abortion, temporary public cover via funding for his state, and will not vote for socialized healthcare that will leave his state screwed in about three years.

This is why you can’t trust those who call themselves “conservative” Democrats or promise to be unlike the rest of their party. Unless their name is “Stupak”, they’re not. They’re almost always liberal Democrats who know running in your district as a liberal would be disastrous. So they pretend to be conservative until they can find cover to vote and act liberally. They’re sell-outs.

Democrats are, at heart, socialists. They look for political cover to vote for socialism. They work on legislation that incrementally brings about socialism. They implement socialist policies every opportunity they get. That’s why you find they have so many socialist friends on the international scene. They’re socialists with a different name and, generally, different political climate.

Blue Dogs are the same, but they need to pretend to be conservative in order to get elected in conservative districts. Once in Washington they typically look for cover to join the rest of their party.