Senator Ben Nelson is—as of this moment—still holding out against the health-care bill. He could block Harry Reid’s way to the magic 60. Politics Daily notes that what Nelson regards as insufficient language barring public funding of abortion isn’t his only drawback:
In addition to the abortion question, Nelson said he has serious concerns about what he sees as unfunded mandates for states, new taxes and the massive spending in the bill. “They way in which money is raised is not acceptable,” he said. “So if there isn’t a way to raise the money in tight times, I think you have to look at a scaled-back version.”
Senator Jim Webb of Virginia told a Richmond audience that he hasn’t made up his mind yet. I think that, pass or fail, the Democrats are in a bad spot—the unseemly way Harry Reid managed the process, the apparent lack of interest in what’s really in the bill or what the public thinks, and the buying of Senator Landrieu’s vote. It all looks bad.