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Ben Nelson to Henry McMaster: 'Call off the dogs'
Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) reached out Thursday evening to South Carolina GOP Attorney General Henry McMaster, the leader of a group of 13 Republican state attorneys general who are threatening to file suit against the Senate health care bill, and urged him to forgo any legal action, POLITICO has learned.According to a copy of a memo sent by McMaster's chief of staff to other GOP state attorneys general detailing the call, Nelson asked McMaster to "call off the dogs," a reference to recent threats by the state AGs to file a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a Medicaid provision in the bill that benefits Nebraska at the expense of other states. Under the terms of a deal Nelson cut with Senate leaders to secure his crucial vote for the health care package, Nebraska would be exempted from having to pay for the coverage of its new Medicaid enrollees--leaving the federal government to pick up the tab. The deal is expected to cost the federal government $100 million over the next 10 years. Jake Thompson, a Nelson spokesman, declined comment when reached by POLITICO Friday. The memo, written by McMaster Chief of Staff Trey Walker, explains that Nelson told McMaster that the Medicaid deal had not been his idea, and that the same Medicaid exemption would be extended to other states. "Senator Nelson insisted that he had not asked for the Cornhusker Kickback to be placed in the U.S. Senate version of the health care bill to secure his vote. Senator Nelson told the attorney general that it was simply a 'marker' placed in the U.S. Senate version of the bill and assured the attorney general that it would be 'fixed,' says the memo. The document goes on to say: "Senator Nelson said it would be 'fixed' by extending the Cornhusker Kickback (100% federal payment) on Medicaid to every state." Senate Democratic leaders have made no reference to a plan to expand the Nebraska deal to the remaining 49 states -- a move that would be prohibitively expensive to the federal government and raise serious questions about whether health reform would lower the expected federal deficit, as President Barack Obama claims it would. At the same time, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said after the Nebraska deal came to light that he envisions other states lining up to seek a similar deal down the road. Under the Nebraska provision, all added expenses from expanding Medicaid to cover the uninsured in Nebraska starting in 2017 would be borne by the federal government forever, not split with the state as they are now. According to the memo, McMaster responded to Nelson by saying that the goal of the GOP attorneys general was to remove the Nebraska Medicaid provision from the bill and that "he saw no way that he--nor any of the state attorneys general--will support extension of the Cornhusker Kickback to every state nor be a part of a deal like that." A source familiar with the call said Nelson called McMaster Thursday evening after first contacting South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham to express his desire to speak with McMaster. Graham and fellow South Carolina Republican Sen. Jim DeMint asked McMaster late last month to investigate the Nebraska provision. Nelson has been under tremendous political pressure since details of the deal emerged and on Tuesday, Rasmussen Reports released the results of an automated poll that showed troubling numbers for Nelson, who is not up for re-election until 2012. One day later, Nelson aired a television ad explaining his vote. "With all the distortions about health care reform, I want you to hear directly from me," the Democratic senator said in the ad. The telephone survey of 500 Nebraskans, conducted Monday, suggested Republican Gov. Dave Heineman would defeat Nelson in a potential 2012 Senate race by a 61-30 margin. The poll showed Nelson with a 55 percent unfavorable rating and 64 percent disapproval for Democratic health care reform legislation. "With all the distortions about health care reform, I want you to hear directly from me," the Democratic senator says in the ad. Posted by: Fred 2010-01-02 |
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