Paying off Senators with YOUR Tax Money

One question for everyone reading this: is this how you want your government working? If they can't get the votes needed, they begin promising large amounts of money toward pet projects. Where is that money coming from? Your tax dollars. I can hardly stomach it. In my opinion, the whole group needs to be elected out of office and start over.

from: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/12/18/nelson-cites-real-progress-health-care-talks/

WASHINGTON -- President Obama on Saturday praised the compromise reached on the Senate's version of his health care overhaul plan, saying, "We are on the cusp of making health care reform a reality in the U.S."

"It appears the American people will finally get a vote on health care overhaul they deserve," Obama said shortly after returning to the White House from his trip to Copenhagen.

Obama's comments came not long after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, with a self-imposed Christmas deadline looming, announced the Democrats had reached an agreement to secure the 60 votes needed to pass a sweeping overhaul of the U.S. health care system.

When asked directly at a news conference whether had the required votes, Reid replied, "It seems that way."

Reid's announcement came after he and other party leaders engineered a last-minute compromise on parts of the legislation to win the support of the lone Democratic holdout, Sen. Ben Nelson. Under the latest revisions, the Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill would cost $871 billion over the first 10 years and reduce the federal deficit by a cumulative total of $132 billion in that period.

Marathon negotiations among the White House, Senate Democratic leaders and Nelson, a conservative Democrat from Nebraska, produced fresh concessions that will mean additional abortion restrictions in the legislation and funding to cover poor people for Nelson's state and others.

"I know this is hard for some of my colleagues to accept and I appreciate their right to disagree. But I would not have voted for this bill without these provisions," Nelson said at a news conference in the Capitol.

Democratic leaders offered Nelson a deal similar to the $300 million in Medicaid assistance Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana got for her support, numerous sources told Fox News.