Tag Archives: Ben Nelson

In 2009 Ben Nelson literally gave President Barack Obama the 60th and final vote for a government-run healthcare bill that raised taxes by $500 billion, cut $500 billion from Medicare and forced every American to purchase health insurance. Fortunately the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals – which was comprised of two judges who were nominated by President Bill Clinton and one judge who was nominated by President George H.W. Bush – ruled that the health care reform law’s requirement that nearly all Americans buy insurance is unconstitutional. As the Washington Examiner reports: “A federal appeals court has ruled that the national health care law’s individual mandate is unconstitutional, calling it “an unprecedented exercise of congressional power.” The 11th Circuit, which was hearing the case brought by 26 states led by Florida and the National Federation of Independent Business concluded: that the individual mandate contained in the Act exceeds Congress’s enumerated…

Will Nelson Back Second Stimulus After Rubber-Stamping First $787 Billion Debacle? As he helped ram President Barack Obama’s $787 billion stimulus into law, Democrat U.S. Senator Ben Nelson promised it would create millions of new jobs and his friends in the Obama Administration projected the deficit-spending spree would hold unemployment below 8 percent. But instead, our country has lost 2.4 million jobs since President Obama came into office and is now in its 30th consecutive month with higher-than-8-percent unemployment – while our national debt has skyrocketed to $14.5 trillion. So where does Ben Nelson stand now, as Obama calls for Nebraskans to foot the bill for yet another round of costly “stimulus” spending in Washington? As Fox News reports: In his weekly address on Saturday, President Barack Obama called for Congress to approve more money for a new—and vaguely defined—program to repair roads, bridges and airports as a means of…

Stands Against House Republican Proposal, While Ignoring Debt Limit History In yet another sign that he’s prepared to put the re-election efforts of himself and President Obama ahead of avoiding the federal government defaulting on its debt for the first time in U.S. history, U.S. Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) joined with his liberal party leaders last night in signing a letter announcing his firm opposition to the two-step plan offered by House Speaker John Boehner and which will be voted on by the House yesterday. In his letter, Nelson joined with Democrat leaders Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer in claiming that an initial six-month extension, as opposed to the two year extension sought by President Obama, would put America at risk.  Notably, the Boehner bill has the strong support and endorsement of the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce and Industry.  Ignoring that, Nelson and his fellow Democrats write, “A short-term extension…

As he postures in advance of his uphill reelection bid, Democrat Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) routinely preaches the importance of fiscal responsibility and even said just days ago that “I support a balanced budget and am in favor of a balanced budget amendment.” However, it’s been 814 days since Ben Nelson and his fellow Senate Democrats have proposed any federal budget, much less the balanced budget Nelson promised to support. And today, Nelson voted with his Washington party bosses against even considering a measure to balance the federal budget while cutting runaway spending now and capping Washington’s spending in the future – just the latest in a long pattern of Nelson putting his party bosses’ liberal Washington agenda ahead of keeping his promises to Nebraskans. “Nebraskans are no doubt wondering how Senator Nelson explains his vote today in light of his claim just days ago to support a balanced budget…

In yet other indication of how harmful liberal Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) and President Barack Obama’s massive health care overhaul is to middle-class Nebraskans, Washington newspaper The Hill reports today that one of the law’s major provisions is poised to burden families with higher insurance costs: A major provision of the healthcare reform law designed to prevent businesses from dropping coverage for their workers could inadvertently leave families without access to subsidized health insurance. The problem is a huge headache for the Obama administration and Democrats, because it could leave families unable to buy affordable health insurance when the healthcare law requires that everyone be insured starting in 2014. Some of the administration’s closest allies on healthcare reform warn this could dramatically undercut support for the law, which is already unpopular with many voters and contributed to Democrats losing the House in the 2010 midterm elections. “Ben Nelson ignored the…

Washington Post Writer Pulls Back Curtain On Senate Democrats Putting Politics Ahead Of Passing Bipartisan Reforms For those who have been following the ongoing debt ceiling negotiations and questioned the difficulty of both parties reaching a bipartisan agreement, a new report out by a left-leaning blogger for the Washington Post is instructive. The Post’s Greg Sargent reports that Senate Democrat campaign strategists who are overseeing U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson’s re-election bid have concluded that passing much-needed Medicare reforms will squander their efforts to score political points by scaring Nebraska seniors. This comes despite even President Obama making clear that everything should be on the table to start reining-in our out-of-control federal debt. Top Democrats in charge of keeping the Senate in Dem hands and maintaining the political health of the party — DSCC chair Patty Murray and messaging chief Chuck Schumer — have privately expressed frustration that deep Medicare cuts…

800 Days With No Budget & Now 9.2 Percent Unemployment It’s now been a full 800 days since U.S. Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) and his fellow Democrats who run the U.S. Senate have passed a federal budget.  In fact, in the current Congress, Senate Democrats haven’t even proposed a budget, with published reports on Capitol Hill today saying that they’re still “discussing” it. In the meantime, the Labor Department reports today that unemployment has now climbed to 9.2 percent – a post World War II record of 29 straight months of at least 8 percent unemployment – while the federal debt continues to climb past $14.3 trillion. “These sobering numbers serve as yet another reminder that Nebraska simply can’t afford another six years of Ben Nelson’s liberal tax-and-spend agenda,” said National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) spokesman Jahan Wilcox.  What They’re Saying About Today’s Jobs Report…. The Hill’s Sam Youngman: “Wow….

Wasn’t Against ObamaCare’s Massive Tax Hikes, So Why The Sudden Change Of Heart? For the last several years, liberal U.S. Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) has been all too happy to rubber-stamp President Obama’s wasteful spending and job-killing tax hikes in Washington – including the more than $500 billion in job-killing tax hikes contained in the massive Obama-Nelson health care overhaul.  But as Roll Call’s David Drucker noted today, as he faces an uphill reelection bid Nelson is suddenly changing his tune, telling reporters that he now opposes job-killing tax hikes, saying “Debt reduction should focus on spending cuts..Raising taxes at a time when our economy remains fragile takes us in the wrong direction. That won’t create jobs in Nebraska.”  “While it’s nice that Ben Nelson now recognizes the error of his tax-hiking ways, the unfortunate reality is that this comes too late for the thousands of Nebraska families and small…

Obama’s Top Economists Reveal Hefty Price Tag For Failed Stimulus Debacle Since U.S. Senator Ben Nelson helped President Barack Obama ram his $787 billion stimulus into law, America has lost nearly 1.9 million jobs and our national debt has skyrocketed to a record-high $14.3 trillion.  Now, President Obama’s own top economists estimate that the Obama-Nelson stimulus debacle cost taxpayers an average $278,000 per job. As the Weekly Standard notes: “The report was written by the White House’s Council of Economic Advisors, a group of three economists who were all handpicked by Obama, and it chronicles the alleged success of the “stimulus” in adding or saving jobs. The council reports that, using “mainstream estimates of economic multipliers for the effects of fiscal stimulus” (which it describes as a “natural way to estimate the effects of” the legislation), the “stimulus” has added or saved just under 2.4 million jobs — whether private…

Talks Frayed Over Democrats’ Insistence That Both Be Part Of The Final Deal With America’s debt now skyrocketing past $14.3 trillion, negotiations on Capitol Hill to increase the debt limit by another $2 trillion are currently stalled over Democrats’ insistence that tax increases and new “stimulus” spending be part of any final package, instead of the important reform measures that non-partisan experts say are needed to prevent Medicare from going bankrupt. “America is on the brink of an economic crisis of historic proportions and yet Ben Nelson and his fellow Democrats in Washington are insisting on job-killing tax hikes and even more ‘stimulus spending,’” said National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) spokesman Jahan Wilcox today.  “Nebraskans know that the problem with Washington isn’t that our government taxes too little, but that it spends too much.  At what point will Senator Nelson listen to that message and finally stand up to his…