We are so totally screwed.
Nelson will announce he bent over and took it up the ass reached agreement on the Obama-care bill.
Watch how the media goes into a frenzied orgy of adulation over how Obama was able to garner support.
Watch how they excoriate the Republicans for not voting for it.
Watch how you will die more quickly and more painfully thanks to these weasels who will not have to participate in the laws they pass.
Watching three Democrats discuss the health care bill is like watching the guy at the buy here pay here lot sell a clunker to a poor person who has to get transportation to work; Then like a preacher more concerned with the offering than Gods will followed up with a eulogy for a no good scoundrel. My poor children…
“Nelson secured full federal funding for his state to expand Medicaid coverage to all individuals below 133 percent of the federal poverty level. Other states must pay a small portion of the additional cost.”
“I know this is hard for some of my colleagues to accept and I appreciate their right to disagree,” Nelson told reporters at the Capitol, of the many changes made at his behest. “But I would not have voted for this bill without these provisions.”
The 2008 federal poverty level is $10,400 for individuals, and $21,200 for a family of 4. 133% of those numbers are $13,832 and $28,196. Minimum wage right now is $7.25; a full time job at that rate pays $15,080 per year.
So what is it that Nelson actually “won” here? Isn’t Medicaid the insurance that poor folks already had? So now they can flip burgers for 47 weeks a year and still be covered?
… ah, I think I see. In Nebraska Medicaid is only given to people who are “a resident of the State of Nebraska, a US national, citizen or permanent resident in need of health care/insurance assistance, whose financial situation would be characterized as low income or very low income. You must also be either pregnant, a child under age 19, a parent or relative caretaker of a dependent child(ren) under age 19, have a disability, blind, or age 65 or older. ”
… so this move gives Medicaid eligibility to plain old poor people who may not be parents, pregnant, disabled, etc. For example, single men with very low paying seasonal jobs.
A trip through Google shows 13% of Nebraskans to be below the poverty line. It shows Nelson to be a big proponent for workfare and the Appleseed program. They have had their “Employment First” welfare/workfare program since Nelson was governor back in 1993. It gives you aid for a maximum of 2 years.
A recent judicial ruling struck down that state’s HHS department’s practice of not granting Medicaid to welfare recipients who didn’t work enough; it looks like a whole 400 people will benefit from that ruling.
So I kind of wonder just how few people are really going to benefit from Nelson’s Big Win. Those who are rolling off of Employment-First probably, either from time or from “excessive” incomes. Sure would be nice to have some real numbers to look at, but I doubt that it’s really all that many folks. He may have sold his soul (our soul??) for just 1 or 2 pieces of silver instead of the customary 30.
And once again, we’ve got a Senator who is more concerned about garnering some pork for his home state than about what is best for the country as a whole.
The road all this is leading us down is not a road I like to think about.
Does that road include…Revolution?