Senator Ben Nelson, the last of the democrat holdouts to sign on to the health care bill is getting some backlash in his home state of Nebraska. Up until about a week ago, the Senator was against the health care bill because certain provisions were not being met. To assuage Sen. Nelson, Harry Reid and other democrats added two additional provisions to the health care bill related to abortion subsidies and covering $45 million of Nebraska’s Medicaid/Medicare budget.

Neb.’s Nelson sees backlash on health reform plan

Gov. Dave Heineman [Nebraska] “contacted me and he said this is another unfunded federal mandate and it’s going to stress the state budget, and I agreed with him,” the Nebraska Democrat said. “I said to the leader and others that this is something that has to be fixed. I didn’t participate in the way it was fixed.”

“Nebraskans did not ask for a special deal, only a fair deal,” Heineman said in a statement Sunday.

That criticism is only a taste of what Nelson has received since announcing Saturday that he would become the 60th vote needed to advance the landmark legislation.

Despite the perks Nelson managed to garner for Nebraska in finally agreeing to support the overhaul bill, the backlash from those who wanted Nelson to hold a hard line against the measure was immediate.

Senator Nelson responded to the backlash by saying, “This is all orchestrated, it’s so thinly disguised … it’s almost laughable.”

No, Senator, what’s laughable is that you likely read exactly two provisions in the 2000-plus page proposal and have no clue as to the content of the rest of the bill. Rather than being concerned with the long-term ramifications of transferring 15% of our economy into the hands of the government and committing trillions of tax payer dollars to government mandated medical care, you focused solely on how this benefits you and elements within your own party in Nebraska.

Citizens of your state must be so proud.