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Email: "The Lieberman Pincer: Key Senator “Ready” to Vote for Healthcare under New Deal"

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BY LifeSiteNews.com By Peter J. SmithWASHINGTON, D.C., December 15, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Furious backroom negotiations and last-minute deals are putting enormous pressure on two key Democratic senators to end their opposition to health care reform and pass the Senate version by President Barack Obama's Christmas deadline. Both Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) are the last public non-GOP holdouts to the current Senate legislation, but the latter has indicated he is now "ready" to vote for health care reform if Senate Democrats follow through on a deal that eliminates the government-insurance mandate.Last night, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Democratic leaders signaled they would drop entirely the public option and the Medicare buy-in as part of a deal to get Lieberman's vote.Reid needs both Sens. Lieberman and Nelson in order to find the 60 Senators to overcome a Republican-led filibuster.   "I'm going to be in a position where I can say what I've wanted to say all along: that I'm ready to vote for health care reform," Lieberman told reporters on Tuesday. What remains to be seen is whether Sen. Reid's decision to cave in to Lieberman's demands may cost him socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Sanders told the Hill on route to a meeting at the White House, "It's a very disturbing development, and we're looking at it."The other Democrat senator key to achieving the goal of 60 votes is Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), who also joined in Sen. Lieberman's concerns over government-run insurance and extending the Medicare mandate, saying that the move looked like a step to "single-payer."Nelson has also stated that the Senate version's abortion mandate puts a serious obstacle to him supporting the measure. Appearing Sunday on "Face the Nation" with host Bob Schieffer, Nelson said, "I said I can't support the bill with the abortion language that's there," noting that finding an adequate compromise would be "a tall order."Nelson proposed a bipartisan amendment with Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) that would have inserted a ban on government-appropriated funds being used to cover elective abortions. Nelson's efforts were unsuccessful, as the Senate tabled that amendment on a 55-45 vote.However, some sources say fellow Democrats are putting the squeeze on Nelson, so they can meet President Barack Obama's recent demand that they pass a health care bill before Christmas. Conservative pundit Michelle Malkin reported that one source from the Hill said that Senate Democrats were threatening to close Offutt Air Force base in Nebraska or were considering giving him a "bribe bigger than Sen. Landrieu's."Malkin was referring to the deal cut for Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), who opposed the health care reform until a provision was inserted that increases Louisiana's Medicaid funds to approximately $300 million.But Nelson spokesman Jake Thompson put the kibosh on both those claims telling the Omaha World-Herald "the rumor is not true." Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) has confidently predicted that Democrats will put together the 60 votes necessary to pass the health care bill before Christmas, but as yet little indication points to a deal in the works over the abortion issue for Sen. Nelson. A Rasmussen poll gauging public opinion on the health care bill over the past weekend shows popular feeling against the health care bills coming out of Congress: 56 percent say they oppose the plan, while 40 percent favor it.  In the same poll, President Obama's approval ratings plummeted to a new low, with 24 percent of voters reporting they "strongly approve" of Obama's performance, while 42 percent "strongly disapprove." See related coverage by LifeSiteNews.com:   Dem Senator Seeks to Alter Filibuster Rules to Pass Health Bill http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/dec/09121106.htmlPro-Life Amendment Seen as Historic Victory Overshadowed by Dangers of Health Bill Passage http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/nov/09110801.html http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/the-lieberman-pincer-key-senator-ready-to-vote-for-healthcare-under-new-dea/

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